LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Deceived      IAN     4     1893      •  l89 
^Accessions  No .  *4Q  X  0.  o.    .  Class  No . 


THE  SCHOOL  ADD  THE  FAMILY 


THE  ETHICS  OF  SCHOOL  RELATIONS 


Br  JOHN  KENNEDY 

INSTRUCTOR   IX   TEACHERS'    INSTITUTES 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER   &   BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS 

FKANKLIN     SQUARE 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1878,  by 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


THE  doctrine  of  this  treatise  was  embodied 
in  a  paper  entitled  "  The  Philosophy  of 
School  Discipline,"  read  before  the  New 
York  State  Teachers'  Association  at  Pitts- 
burgh, K  Y.,  July  25th,  1877.  The  paper 
was  favorably  received  by  the  Association, 
and  was  afterwards  published  in  pamphlet 
form  in  order  to  subject  it  to  the  careful 
examination  and  criticism  of  the  education- 
al public. 

Many  opinions  of  the  "  Philosophy  "  have 
been  received  from  leading  educational  au- 
thorities. Those  opinions,  while  pronounc- 
ing the  doctrine  sound  and  its  formulas  use- 


IV  PREFACE. 


ful,  have  been  accompanied  by  urgent  re- 
quests for  a  more  elaborate  discussion  of  the 
principles  laid  down  ;  and  it  is  in  compli- 
ance with  these  requests  that  the  present 
work  is  undertaken. 

The  author  fully  believes  that  there  ex- 
ist in  the  nature  of  things  materials  for  a 
Science  of  School  Discipline.  If  this  work 
should  fail  of  scientific  accuracy  and  com- 
pleteness, he  trusts  that  it  may  at  least  have 
the  effect  of  stimulating  inquiry,  and  hasten- 
ing the  time  when  we  shall  have  an  authen- 
tic science  of  this  important  subject.  Pie 
is  convinced,  from  extended  observation  in 
many  of  the  foremost  states  in  the  Union, 
that  the  educational  energy  of  this  nation  is 
suffering  from  a  vicious  empiricism.  We  see 
much  guess-work  abroad  in  the  land,  and 
many  haphazard  ventures,  without  uniform- 
ity of  thought,  and  consequently  without  real 
progress. 


PREFACE. 


Until  the  profession  of  teaching  rests  upon 
scientific  formulas  it  will  ever  be  in  its  in- 
fancy. By  empirical  methods  each  teacher 
spends  his  life  in  more  or  less  blundering 
experiments,  and  dies  when  he  is  beginning 
to  understand  his  vocation.  His  successor 
repeats  the  same  round  of  experience. 

Science  would  save  this  great  waste  of  ex- 
periment, and  conserve  the  fruits  of  experi- 
ence from  slipping  into  the  grave.  Experi- 
ment could  then  be  utilized  in  doing  real 
pioneer  work,  and  not  be  wasted  on  prob- 
lems that  had  been  solved  ages  before.  With 
a  science  of  school  discipline  promulgated, 
teachers  would  not  be  found,  as  now,  inquir- 
ing of  each  other,  "What  would  you  do  in 
this  case  ?"  but  rather,  "  What  is  the  scien- 
tific solution  ?"  Science  gives  an  authority 
representing  not  merely  individual  experi- 
ence, however  good,  but  rather  the  collective 
experience  of  ages.  Its  dicta  ought  certainly 
to  be  entitled  to  respect. 


Vi  PREFACE. 


Having  access  to  a  science  of  his  profes- 
sion, the  young  disciple  is  enabled  to  get  his 
eyes  open  in  advance  of  blundering  steps ;  he 
has  a  ready  authority  in  case  of  doubt  or  un- 
certainty ;  and  he  has  a  vantage-ground  for 
really  original  achievements.  A  scientific  ba- 
sis welds  a  profession  together  and  increases 
its  momentum.  But  the  science  of  school 
discipline  extends  beyond  the  profession,  and 
would  tend  to  shape  the  thoughts  and  livea 
of  families  and  communities. 

The  work,  as  now  elaborated,  has  several 
ends  in  view,  which  may  account  for  the 
rather  composite  style  in  which  it  is  writ- 
ten. It  aims  to  reach  the  thinker,  and  for 
his  purpose  would  observe  a  closely  philo- 
sophical method.  It  aims  to  reach  the 
parents  and  the  community ;  and,  in  con- 
sequence, it  has  at  times  a  fulness  of  ex- 
emplification which  would  be  unnecessary  in 
a  strictly  philosophical  or  professional  work. 


PKEFACE.  VH 


It  aims  to  be  an  instrumentality  in  the  work 
of  practical  reform;  and  for  that  reason  it 
has  in  places  an  intensity  of  language  that 
would  otherwise  be  without  meaning.  Prac- 
tical reforms  are  not  accomplished  without 
hard  blows  against  the  evils  to  be  removed. 
The  inertia  of  custom  is  overcome  only  by 
vigorous  shaking.  It  has  the  general  pro- 
fessional and  literary  aim  of  calling  attention 
to  a  great  field  of  research,  comparatively 
untouched  in  this  country — viz.,  the  field  of 
educational  science. 

Our  gigantic  empiricism  may  have  been 
all  needed  in  order  to  furnMi  the  data  for 
generalization.  But  if  so,  we  have  already 
accumulated  such  a  surfeit  of  facts  as 
ought  to  delight  the  soul  of  the  philoso- 
pher. It  would  seem  that  the  time  has  ar- 
rived for  a  new  departure.  If  it  were 
necessary  in  the  beginning  to  feel  our  way 
and  acquire  educational  opinions,  we  should 


Vlll  PREFACE. 


hereafter  see  our  way  and  possess  educa- 
tional knowledge.  He  who  will  co-ordi- 
nate the  truths  discovered  by  our  empiri- 
cism, and  fasten  them  in  a  wTell  -  defined 
terminology,  will  do  a  great  public  good. 

Hoping  that  the  aims  of  the  book  will 
invite  a  merciful  forbearance  of  its  faults, 
it  is  respectfully  submitted  to  the  public. 

JOHN  KENNEDY. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE iii 

INTRODUCTION 11 

SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE 14 

CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  DISTRICT 17 

CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  PARENTS 25  ^ 

CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  CHILDREN 44 

CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER 49 

CAUSES  OF  DISORDER 72 

RIGHTS  OF  THE  DISTRICT 80 

RIGHTS  OF  THE  PARENTS 82 '' 

RIGHTS  OF  THE  CHILDREN 84 

RIGHTS  OF  TEACHERS 87 

SPECIAL  PHASES  OF  DISCIPLINE 109 

TABULAR   ANALYSIS , 127 

PRACTICAL  SCHOOL  ETHICS 130 

DISTRICT  PROBLEMS 134 

FAMILY  PROBLEMS 152  " 

YOUTH'S  PROBLEMS 179 

TEACHERS'  PROBLEMS 182 

INDEX , , 201 


OF  THE 

TJHIVEIISITY 


THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 


INTRODUCTION. 

EXACT  knowledge  is  acquired  originally  by 
induction — that  is,  by  investigating  the  prop- 
erties of  particular  facts,  noting  their  resem- 
blances and  differences  and  the  order  of  their 
occurrence. 

Resemblance  and  difference  give  rise  to 
a  classification  of  facts,  and  to  the  mental 
process  of  generalization  ;  order  of  occur- 
rence gives  rise  to  the  conception  of  causa- 
tion. 

When  we  have  effected  a  classification,  of 
a  particular  family  of  facts,  and  detected  the 
order  of  causation,  w^e  have  a  subject.  A 
subject  in  this  sense  is  the  summing-up  of 


12  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

our  discoveries  and  conclusions  within  a 
specified  limit  of  research. 

The  knowledge  embraced  in  the  subject 
may  be  imparted  in  two  ways:  1st.  Objec- 
tively— that  is,  by  causing  the  learner  to  ob- 
serve particular  facts,  and  to  make  his  own 
deductions  successively  to  the  ultimate  con- 
clusions of  the  subject.  2d.  Subjectively— 
that  is,  by  asserting  the  conclusions  and  il- 
lustrating their  soundness  by  application  to 
particular  cases. 

Objective  instruction  is  best  suited  to 
young  minds,  which  generalize  slowly  and 
with  difficulty.  When,  however,  the  mind  is 
measurably  practised  in  generalization,  the 
subjective  method  may  be  pursued  with  profit. 

Subjective  learning  consists  in  apprehend- 
ing the  meaning  of  propositions,  and  mak- 
ing the  application  to  particular  cases. 

Subjective  instruction  is  effective  only 
wrhen  it  results  in  edification.  Edification  is 
the  fulness  and  strength  resulting  from  the 
complete  possession  of  the  thought.  Start- 


INTRODUCTION.  13 


ing  with  the  proposition,  the  mind  sweeps 
through  the  field  of  particulars,  and  obtains 
complete  possession  of  the  thought  only 
when  it  finds  its  application  and  verification 
in  experience.  With  edification  begins  men- 
tal growth.  Teaching  should  be  to  edifica- 
tion ;  reading,  or  attention,  should  be  to  edi- 
fication. 

We  shall  employ  the  subjective  method  in 
this  work,  and  shall  aim  to  give  that  clear- 
ness of  statement  which  will  be  favorable 
to  understanding  and  edification. 

The  widest  generalization  in  a  subject  is 
its  definition.  This,  when  correct,  embraces 
all  that  enters  into  the  subject,  and  finds 
its  exemplification  in  a  subsequent  logical 
analysis.  We  can,  therefore,  expect  the  defi- 
nition to  be  but  partly  understood  at  the  out- 
set, as  all  the  subsequent  treatment  tends  to 
explain  it.  Through  a  series  of  minor  prop- 
ositions, involving  less  mental  effort,  we  end 
with  grasping  the  full  significance  of  the 
definition. 


14      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 


SCHOOL  DISCIPLINE. 

Definition.  —  Discipline,  in  the  sense  of 
government,  is  that  power  of  control  which 
produces  and  sustains  order. 

Definition. — Order  is  fitness  of  condition 
in  things. 

Throughout  creation  we  see  evidences  of 
purpose.  Every  created  thing  has  a  definite 
end  to  fulfil  in  the  economy  of  the  universe, 
and  relations  to  sustain  to  all  other  things. 
The  extent  of  these  relations  is  known  only 
to  the  Infinite  Mind;  but  copious  gKmpses 
of  them  are  allowed  to  mortal  discernment. 
It  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  search  out  the 
purposes,  of  which  things  are  but  the  expres- 
sions. Without  the  purpose  we  but  half 
know  the  thing. 

Change,  activity,  is  the  universal  law  of 
things.  Where  these  infinite  activities  occur 


SCHOOL   DISCIPLINE.  15 

in  accordance  with  creative  purposes,  there  is 
no  conflict,  no  disorder,  but  rather  the  di- 
vinest  harmony.  In  inanimate  nature,  also, 
among  non-rational  creatures,  this  harmony 
appears.  All  things  within  these  classes  fulfil 
their  appointed  purposes  with  the  most  un- 
questioning obedience. 

It  remains  for  the  volition  of  man  to  dis- 
turb the  harmony  of  creation.  Hence  we 
can  understand  the  poet's  tendency  to  retire 
from  things  which  appear  out  of  joint,  and 
find  his  inspiration  in  the  harmonies  of  obe- 
dient nature. 

Poetic  genius  is  but  a  soul  attuned  to  the 
harmonies  of  divine  purpose,  and  to  whom 
Nature's  voices  are  intelligible.  It  turns 
from  man  only  when  he  is  at  war  with 
order;  but  it  returns  to  him  again  when  he 
is  worthy  of  notice,  and  finds  its  grandest 
paean  in  a  grand  man. 

Man  was  intended  to  be  the  crowning 
glory  of  creation,  instead  of  its  single  blot. 

If  the  volition  of  man  is  the  only  source 


16      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

of  disorder,  when,  then,  is  he  in  order  ? 
When  he  is  disposed  "to  will  and  to  do  of 
the  good  pleasure"  of  Him  who  gave  him 
his  existence  and  his  possibilities.  Then  is 
he  in  fitness  of  condition  —  then  is  he  in 
order. 

Order  as  applied  to  a  school  means  fitness 
of  condition  in  all  the  parties  comprehended 
in  the  idea  of  a  school.  The  parties  in  this 
idea  are  as  follows:  1st,  the  district  as  a 
body  politic;  2d,  the  parents  or  guardians; 
3d,  the  children ;  4th,  the  teacher. 

The  school  is  in  order  when,  and  only 
when,  all  these  parties  are  in  order.  These 
parties  are  in  order  wThen  they  are  in  the 
condition  most  favorable  for  the  upbuilding 
and  advancement  of  the  school. 

"We  may  examine  this  point  under  more 
specific  conditions. 


CONDITIONS    OF    OKDEK    FOli    THE    DISTRICT.       17 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  DISTRICT. 

THE  district  is  in  order — 1st,  when  it  is 
able  to  pay  the  necessary  expenses  of  the 
school;  2d,  when  it  is  willing  to  contribute 
freely  to  the  wants  of  the  school ;  3d,  when 
it  possesses  a  decorous  and  law-abiding  pub- 
lic sentiment. 

1st.  In  the  case  of  a  private  school,  its 
district  is  unlimited  in  area  and  wealth.  Its 
order,  then,  will  depend  principally  upon  the 
last  two  conditions,  together  with  those  of 
the  remaining  factors. 

It  is  different,  however,  in  the  case  of  the 
public  schools.  In  this  case  the  territory  is 
parcelled  out  into  definite  areas  for  purposes 
of  taxation.  There  is  no  disadvantage  in 
this,  provided  the  area  has  sufficient  wealth 
to  sustain  an  efficient  school. 

Some  states  have  wisely  restricted  the  di- 
B 


18  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

mensions  to  which  the  areas  of  taxation  may 
be  reduced.  The  town  or  township  is  au- 
thorized to  tax  itself  for  the  support  of  a 
sufficient  number  of  schools  to  accommo* 
date  the  wants  of  its  people. 

Under  this  basis  of  taxation,  the  concen- 
tration or  extension  of  schools  will  be  regu- 
lated by  the  financial  ability  of  the  town- 
ship. 

It  is  perhaps  true  that  every  township  in 
the  nation  has  the  ability  to  support  one  or 
more  good  schools.  There  is,  therefore,  un- 
der this  organization,  no  financial  necessity 
for  a  bad  school.  If  the  township  chooses 
to  multiply  its  schools  in  order  to  diminish 
the  travelling  of  isolated  inhabitants,  it  per- 
forms an  act  of  folly,  assumes  burdens  that 
it  is  not  able  to  bear,  and  thus  prejudices 
the  first  condition  of  order. 

But  this  condition  of  order  is  ruined  in 
other  states  by  a  pernicious  system  of  un- 
limited subdivision  of  territory.  The  ability 
to  subdivide  is  abused  by  the  desire  to  save 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  DISTRICT.       19 

travelling  to  and  from  the  school-house ;  and 
BO  the  children's  legs  are  saved  at  the  ex- 
pense of  their  brains  and  character.  An- 
other unworthy  incentive  to  subdivision  is 
the  desire  to  get  school-houses  near  enough 
to  be  nurseries  for  infants,  an  utter  perver- 
sion of  the  purposes  of  a  school. 

Subdivision  produces  inability  to  support 
a  good  school ;  this  poverty  produces  disor- 
der. The  children  will  not  respect  the  coops 
that  are  too  often  prepared  for  their  recep- 
tion ;  they  cannot  respect  a  cheap  teacher : 
there  results  demoralization  to  the  school, 
and  ultimately  to  the  community. 

The  general  evils  attendant  upon  minute 
subdivision  of  territory  are  aggravated  by 
special  evils  peculiar  to  the  nature  of  the 
case.  The  business  of  the  district  is  not 
transacted  in  a  systematic  manner ;  no  delib- 
erative body  discusses  its  necessities,  hears 
suggestions  for  its  improvement,  or  keeps 
a  record  of  its  proceedings  as  a  guide  to 
future  action.  The  pure  democracy  use 


20  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 

their  privilege  principally  in  deciding  who 
shall  control  the  pittance  of  patronage ;  then 
comes  in  the  most  unseemly  nepotism  to 
give  the  finishing  blow  in  the  murder  of  a 
school. 

When  we  add  the  neighborhood  animosi- 
ties resulting  from  scrambles  after  territory 
and  schools,  we  have  a  fair  recapitulation  of 
the  evils  resulting  from  minute  subdivision. 

As  intimated  in  the  beginning,  this  philos- 
ophy has  been  developed  inductively,  though 
treated  subjectively.  The  results  alluded  to 
throughout  the  work  are  not  simply  what 
might  occur  under  given  circumstances,  but 
what  have  actually  occurred  in  the  American 
attempt  at  popular  education.  The  writer 
has  seen  in  the  leading  states  of  the  Union 
what  he  chooses  to  call  the  created  evils  of 
legislation  at  work  sapping  the  efficiency  of 
education  and  the  welfare  of  society  with  it. 

It  is  not  easy  to  write  with  philosophic 
composure  when  the  theme  recalls  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  destruction  of  so  many 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  DISTRICT.       21 

thousands  of  a  promising  generation  whose 
maturity  the  country  needs. 

The  nation  has  been  so  blind  to  the  real 
condition  of  things  as  to  listen  with  rapt 
attention  to  repeated  eulogiums  on  the  little 
school-houses  dotting  the  land.  When  one 
knows  how  many  of  these  structures  may 
well  bear  on  their  portals  the  flaming  in- 
scription, "Who  enters  here  leaves  hope  be- 
hind," the  sight  of  them  is  more  likely  to 
awaken  a  shudder  than  a  thrill  of  joy. 

It  is  an  encouraging  sign,  however,  that 
educational  thought  is  moving  against  minute 
subdivision,  and  in  favor  of  rational  organi- 
zation. Several  states  have  obliterated  sub- 
district  lines,  and  have  organized  educational 
work  on  the  basis  of  the  township  system. 

But  the  old  evils  are  largely  entailed  upon 
the  new  system:  the  so-called  school-houses 
having  an  existence  are  permitted  to  settle 
the  question  of  how  many  schools  are  to  be 
supported  in  the  township. 

Poverty,  then,  affects  discipline  by  making 


22      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

it  impossible  to  secure  suitable  school-houses, 
apparatus,  and  competent  teachers. 

2d.  Free  communities  control  their  own 
property.  The  ability  to  support  a  good 
school  would  be  null  without  willingness  on 
the  part  of  the  people  to  advance  the  funds 
necessary  to  put  the  school  in  order. 

3d.  The  discipline  of  the  school  must  nec- 
essarily be  affected  by  the  condition  of  public 
sentiment  in  the  community.  The  children 
imbibe  their  character  from  every  adult  of 
their  acquaintance :  the  teacher  is  but  one 
among  many  wTho  have  access  to  them  dur- 
ing the  day.  His  efforts  to  inculcate  subor- 
dination wall  not  prosper  while  vicious  asso- 
ciates are  instructing  the  children  that  rebell- 
ion and  license  are  the  proper  order  of  life, 
and  the  only  things  that  are  manly.  His 
corrections  wrill  not  have  the  desired  effect 
while  a  neighborhood  tells  the  children  that 
they  are  martyrs,  that  the  teacher  is  their 
enemy,  and  that  they  should  retaliate  their 
wrongs  upon  him  at  the  earliest  possible  day0 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  DISTRICT.       23 

Unless  the  teacher's  precepts  find  a  fair 
degree  of  corroboration  outside,  they  will 
but  produce  irritation  and  increase  the  dis- 
order. Instances  are  on  record  where  teach- 
ers who  wanted  order  have  been  thrown  out 
of  the  school -house  by  the  large  boys,  and 
the  neighborhood  laughed  at  the  joke. 

That  is  not  a  commendable  state  of  senti- 
ment where  sucli  boys  become  the  heroes  of 
breakfast-tables.  Yet  the  writer  has  in  mind 
a  school  in  which,  after  one  teacher  had  been 
thrown  out  with  a  broken  leg,  his  successor 
escaped  the  same  fate  only  by  his  quickness 
of  action  and  the  rapidity  with  which  he 
administered  bruises. 

Instead  of  being  frowned  down  by  the 
community,  and  taught  to  hang  their  heads 
with  shame  after  the  first  offence,  those  un- 
fortunate boys  came  back  with  the  spirit  of 
heroes  in  search  of  fresh  laurels.  These  are, 
of  course,  exceptional  cases ;  but  they  serve 
to  illustrate  how  important  an  element  of 
discipline  is  law-abiding  public  sentiment  in 


24:      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

a  community.  License  has  its  fascinations 
for  the  young,  and  even  in  the  best-ordered 
communities  the  children  are  exposed  to  the 
corrupting  example  and  instruction  of  too 
many  bad  persons. 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  PARENTS.       25 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  PARENTS. 

THE  parents  are  in  order — 1st,  when  they 
appreciate  the  value  of  education  to  the 
child ;  2d,  when  they  are  wise  in  the  daily 
management  of  their  children's  time,  with 
a  view  to  school  duties  and  relations ;  3d, 
when  they  are  properly  affected  towards  the 
school,  and  thereby  sustain  its  management. 

1st.  It  is  a  great  misfortune  to  children, 
and  a  great  source  of  disturbance  in  dis- 
cipline, when  parents  have  no  lively  sense 
of  the  value  of  education.  It  is  common 
for  parents  of  limited  culture  to  regard  edu- 
cation as  a  mere  instrumentality  in  the  trans- 
action of  business,  and  that  a  smattering  of 
reading,  writing,  and  computation  will  an- 
swer all  the  purposes  of  life. 

They  overlook  entirely  the  higher  nature 
of  the  child — the  existence  of  mental  and 


26      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

moral  faculties ;  the  capacity  of  these  facul- 
ties for  growth  and  development,  and  the 
relation  of  this  growth  and  development  to 
happiness  and  usefulness.  They  are  deficient 
in  a  proper  ideal  of  maturity  and  character, 
and  fail  to  appreciate  the  germs  intrusted  to 
their  care.  Though  they  are  not  wanting- in 
affection,  yet  they  see  only  the  germs  of 
physical  growth,  and  are  unaware  that  their 
ideals  are  only  adult  children.  /  Dr.  Young 
speaks  of  "  hoary  youth,"  and  there  is  a 
world  of  meaning  in  the  expression. 

Among  the  finer  phases  of  human  life  is 
that  of  the  poor  but  wise  widow  making  the 
most  painful  personal  sacrifices  in  order  to 
procure  that  education  which  she  knows  her 
child  needs.  The  contrast  is  that  of  her  op- 
ulent neighbor  sending  his  children  to  an 
incompetent  and  inexperienced  teacher,  and 
fearing  the  effects  of  over-education. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  over-education  ; 
but  where  this  bugbear  haunts  the  imagi- 
nations of  parents,  they  will  not  second  the 


CONDITIONS    OF    ORDER   FOR   THE   PARENTS.  27 

teacher's  efforts  to  awaken  emulation  and 
ambition. 

"While  there  is  no  such  thing  as  over-educa- 
tion, there  is,  however,  such  a  thing  as  mal- 
education  ;  and  the  notion  of  over-education 
has  arisen  from  a  confusion  of  ideas.  True 
education  strengthens  the  common  -  sense  of 
the  individual,  while  mal-education  may  leave 
him  an  utter  imbecile. 

Where  the  parents  do  not  approve  of  cult- 
ure, the  teacher's  efforts  to  diffuse  it  will  meet 
with  friction,  and  the  order  of  the  school  will 
be  disturbed.  • 

2d.  Punctuality  and  regularity  of  attend- 
ance are  eminently  essential  to  the  good  order 
of  a  school.  The  teacher  arranges  his  plans 
on  the  assumption  that  his  pupils  will  be 
regular  and  punctual  in  their  attendance. 
The  teacher  rules  through  his  system.  Ab- 
sence and  tardiness  tend  to  break  into  and 
demoralize  that  system. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  parents  are  mainly 
responsible  for  absence  and  tardiness :  they 


28      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

could  suppress  them  almost  entirely  if  they 
would. 

That  parents  do  not  suppress  absence  and 
tardiness  is  due  to  three  causes — viz.,  1,  want 
of  systematic  home  government ;  2,  thought- 
lessness or  overweening  sentimental  indul- 
gence ;  3,  covetousness. 

In  well-governed  homes  the  children  retire 
at  a  given  time ;  they  rise  refreshed  at  a 
given  time ;  and  after  discharging  their  morn- 
ing duties  in  order,  they  start  for  school  in 
season.  Habits  of  procrastination  and  irreg- 
ularity will  find  them  unprepared  to  move 
when  schooltime  arrives.  Instead  of  retiring 
to  rest  at  bedtime,  to  recuperate  their  strength 
and  spirits  for  the  demands  of  the  coming 
day,  many  children  are  subjected  to  the  forc- 
ing process  of  acquitting  themselves  in  even- 
ing parties  and  entertainments.  The  time 
which  should  be  devoted  to  repose  is  given 
to  actual  dissipation.  The  dissipation  re- 
garded as  respectable  is  attended  with  phys- 
ical, mental,  and  moral  wear  and  tear  just  as 


CONDITIONS    OF    OKDER   FOB   TIIE    PARENTS.  29 

truly  as  is  the  license  which  society  condemns. 
An  adult  dreads  the  ordeal  of  meeting  tyran- 
nical custom  in  the  night,  because  his  judg- 
ment tells  him  it  will  be  a  tax  on  all  his  pow- 
ers. But  an  adult  requires  less  rest  than  a 
youth,  because  he  has  his  growth,  has  learned 
law,  and  has  acquired  a  habit  of  husbanding 
his  forces.  Young  people,  on  the  contrary, 
have  no  conception  of  law ;  prudence  forms 
no  part  of  their  capital ;  they  are  susceptible 
of  the  most  intense  excitement,  and  are  en- 
tirely at  its  mercy;  they  rush  headlong  to 
prostration  without  experiencing  a  restrain- 
ing motive.  To  rob  a  child  of  its  rest  and 
expose  it  to  the  strain  of  night  excitement 
is  a  sin  attended  writh  the  most  serious  con- 
sequences. Parents  who  thus  surrender  their 
children  to  the  tyranny  of  vicious  custom 
inflict  lasting  injury  upon  the  children  and 
great  disorder  upon  the  school.  The  wearied 
young  victims  are  apt  to  be  late.  But  this  is 
only  an  item  in  the  disorder.  They  are  op- 
pressed with  a  sinking  lassitude,  and  have  no 


30      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

zest  for  exertion ;  their  faculties  are  clouded 
and  benumbed,  making  thinking  difficult  and 
repulsive ;  their  minds  are  absent,  wandering 
back  to  the  scenes  of  excitement  and  dwell- 
ing upon  new-found  emotions.  The  faithful 
teacher  sees  and  feels  the  change  with  dis- 
may. The  school  of  yesterday,  which  was 
beginning  to  feel  the  spur  of  emulation,  has 
been  thrown  back  almost  irretrievably  by  the 
shock  of  outside  forces.  Yet  who  will  say 
that  this  teacher  is  incapable  of  governing 
because  the  accident  of  a  night  has  intro- 
duced such  disorder  into  his  school?  It  is 
not  sufficient  to  the  purposes  of  government 
that  the  teacher  be  in  order ;  it  is  necessary 
that  the  other  factors  be  likewise  in  order. 
He  who  watches  the  clock,  and  sees  that  the 
school-child  retires  before  nine  is  governing 
the  school;  he  who  countenances  late  hours 
is  introducing  disorder. 

In  the  above  wTe  have  depicted  a  fault  in 
family  government  that  is  so  universal  as  to 
be  national.  It  is  not  only  destroying  the 


CONDITIONS    OF    ORDER   FOR   THE   PARENTS.  31 

order  of  our  schools,  but  it  is  also  weakening 
the  quality  of  our  people;  it  is  introducing 
the  inevitable  consequence  of  excess,  human 
deterioration.  The  reaction  of  this  night  ex- 
citement is  seen  in  a  series  of  evil  conse- 
quences. The  more  delicate  children  succumb 
to  the  unnatural  strain  and  disappear  from 
school.  "Where  are  they  to  be  found  there- 
after ?  Not  in  the  broad  arena  of  action, 
wielding  the  forces  of  a  world.  Many  have 
furnished  business  to  undertakers  and  tomb- 
gtone  manufacturers,  while  the  mission  of  the 
rest  is  to  remind  these  enterprising  establish- 
ments that  business  is  not  in  danger.  Night 
excitement  has  for  its  fruit  an  army  of  candi- 
dates for  early -grave  accommodations.  But 
the  dissolution  of  the  body  is  preceded  by 
the  wail  of  dying  hope.  Could  our  parents 
hear  that  continuous  wail  from  the  myriad 
victims  of  misgovernment,  they  would  be 
prompt  in  getting  their  children  to  bed. 

But  the  children  who  survive  the  frightful 
ordeal  in  consequence  of  their  great  recupera- 


32  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 

live  physical  powers  are  also  sufferers ;  they 
bear  the  scars  of  intellectual  and  moral  reac- 
tion ;  their  higher  nature  is  seared  by  the 
hot  iron  of  injustice.  The  good  instructor 
who  has  an  ideal  of  capacity  to  which  he 
would  have  his  pupil  attain  knows  that  he 
must  first  arouse  in  that  pupil  the  emotions 
of  emulation  and  ambition.  Growth  of  pow- 
er is  conditioned  in  emotion;  there  must  be 
the  will  born  of  confidence  and  hope.  Tem- 
porary or  spasmodic  emotion  will  not  supply 
the  conditions  of  development ;  the  emotion 
must  be  sustained.  There  is  a  limit  to  the 
recovery  of  emotion  from  the  depressing 
reactions  of  dissipation;  the  child  at  length 
becomes  incapable  of  the  proper  emotion, 
and  goes  to  swell  the  ranks  of  passive  fail- 
ures. 

"We  want  a  national  sensibility  that  will 
abhor  the  practice  of  making  children  ape 
the  ways  of  maturity.  If  we  protect  them 
from  excitement  by  jealously  guarding  their 
hours  of  repose,  we  do  much  to  assure  their 


CONDITIONS    OF    ORDER   FOR    THE    PARENTS.  33 

good  behavior  in  school  and  their  success  in 
life.  Buttdo  children  not  need  diversion? 
They  do  ;  but  not  after  nine  o'clock  at  night  ;\ 
at  that  point  their  sovereign  need  is  refresh- 
ing sleep.  Under  healthy  government  the  I 
children  will  wake  with  the  lark  and  rouse 
the  household  at  dawn.  Under  right  living, 
mankind  will,  as  they  should,  wake  up  with 
the  rest  of  nature.  A  household  sleepy  in 
the  morning  bespeaks  violated  law.  But 
what  about  the  lessons  that  require  late  study  ? 
The  teacher  is  censurable  for  assigning  such 
lessons.  He  is  employed  to  instruct  the 
children  ;  he  has  no  right  to  compel  them 
to  take  time  from  their  rest  in  order  to  in- 
struct themselves.  He  should,  it  is  true,  en- 
courage application,  and  enforce,  if  need  be,  a 
certain  amount  of  it ;  but  he  can  err  seriously 
by  imposing  heavy  tasks.  A  household  ruled 
on  the  principle  of  a  time  for  everything,  and 
everything  in  its  time,  will  give  not  only 
punctual  pupils,  but  also  punctual  men  and 
women. 

C 


34  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 

But  we  have  only  begun  the  list  of  cumu- 
lative evils  suggested  by  the  fatal  "nine." 
That  hour  marks  a  crisis  in  youth's  daily 
history.  If  wakeful  excitement  continues 
beyond  that  point,  there  is  death  lurking  in 
the  minutes. 

Some  w^ell  -  meaning  parents  detain  their 
children  at  home  from  time  to  time  on  the 
most  trifling  pretexts,  thinking  that  the  loss 
of  a  single  day  will  not  .affect  their  progress 
materially;  or  they  let  the  children  absent 
themselves  on  a  mere  freak.  Regularity  is 
essential  to  close  work  and  solid  advance- 
ment, and  a  discouraged  mind  may  find  its 
cause  in  the  absence  of  a  single  day. 

But  the  most  unworthy  cause  of  absence 
and  tardiness  is  covetousness.  Many  parents 
discover  a  commercial  value  in  the  services 
of  the  child.  They  can  estimate  with  very 
close  accuracy  the  value  of  those  services 
from  year  to  year,  up  to  that  period  when 
the  law  gives  the  little  sufferer  his  release. 

That  release  is  but  a  comfortless  boon  to 


CONDITIONS    OF    ORDER   FOR   THE    PARENTS.  35 

one  who  lias  been  robbed  of  his  youth,  and 
who  is  now  cast  upon  the  world  shorn  of  his 
strength,  maimed  in  body,  intellect,  and  soul. 

No,  the  commercial  parent  is  not  concerned 
with  questions  of  over-education  and  indul- 
gence ;  his  motive  in  detaining  his  children 
from  school  is  dollars  and  cents.  If  for 
form's  sake  he  lets  them  put  in  an  appear- 
ance occasionally,  it  is  with  the  regret  of  the 
miser  who  sees  a  penny  slipping  from  his 
hoard. 

This   is   not    the    relation    of   parent   and  * 
child  ;  it  is  the  relation  of  slave  and  master./ 
The  slavery   that  above  all   others   cries   to* 
heaven   for  vengeance,  is   the    slavery   of   a 
helpless  child  who  feels  within  himself  the 
promptings  to   noble  things,  but   is   ground 
down  to  the  dust  by  the  heavy  hand  of  au- 
thority. 

No  parent  has  a  right  to  discover  a  com-  A 
mercial  value  in  his  child.     It  is   true  that/ 
both  natural  and  civil  law  give  him  the  cus- 
tody of   the   child ;   but  it  is   not  for   com- 


36  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 

mercial  considerations.  The  custody  is  grant- 
ed as  a  tribute  to  the  affections,  and  solely  for 
the  child's  sake.  It  is  presumed  that  the  par- 
ent loves  his  child,  and  will  provide  for  the 
wants  of  its  growing  existence  more  complete- 
ly than  any  other  party. 

Love  is  not  a  task-master ;  it  sacrifices  it- 
self for  its  object ;  it  rejoices  in  giving,  not 
taking.  Where  could  we  presume  that  the 
child  would  be  more  likely  to  find  justice 
than  in  the  bosom  of  its  parent  ? 

The  only  services  from  the  child  to  which 
the  parent  is  justly  entitled  are  obedience, 
respect,  and  filial  love.  But  these  are  given 
in  exchange  for  love;  he  may  forfeit  them 
by  ignoring  his  own  share  of  the  contract. 

But  we  are  not  arguing  that  children 
should  be  idlers.  It  is  contrary  to  their 
nature  to  be  idle ;  they  are  called  bundles  of 
activities.  Nature  has  certain  things  for  the 
child  to  do ;  the  parent  should  give  her  a  fair 
chance  to  work  her  purposes.  It  is  then  his 
duty  to  train  his  child  to  industry,  economy, 


CONDITIONS    OF    ORDER    FOR    THE    PARENTS.  37 

and  practical  skill  in  doing  things  as  a  prep- 
aration for  a  useful  life. 

But  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  aim 
is  training ;  and  the  training  should  not  be 
exhausting. 

If  material  value  results  from  the  activity 
expended  in  the  training,  there  is  no  wrong. 
This  is  property  which  the  parent  has  right- 
fully acquired,  just  as  the  state  finds  property 
in  the  activities  of  the  criminals  it  is  trying 
to  reform.  But  it  would  be  wTrong  in  either 
party  to  covet  such  property. 

The  wisest  parent  will  do  well  to  leave  a 
very  large  part  of  the  training  to  nature ; 
and  a  serious  mistake  may  be  made,  even,  in 
calling  in  the  aid  of  the  schoolmaster  at  too 
early  a  day. 

3d.  To  be  properly  affected  towards  the 
school  is  to  be  disposed  to  do  the  school 
justice.  The  parent  who  is  properly  affected 
towards  the  school  will  not  pass  hasty  judg- 
ment on  the  teacher's  action  on  the  ex  parte 
testimony  of  the  child,  and  conclude  that  a 


38  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

?  wrong  is  done  because  the  child  happens  to 
think  so.  Where  a  wrong  is  suspected  the 
teacher  will  not  be  condemned  without  a 

I  hearing,  nor  till  after  all  available  testimony 

1  has  been  weighed. 

The  most  important  evidence  in  making 
up  just  judgment  is  the  evidence  of  one's 
senses.  Parents  should  see  the  discipline  to 
which  their  children  are  subjected,  and  upon 
which  so  much  depends.  It  is  entirely  un- 
accountable on  what  grounds  parents  neg- 
lect the  duty  of  school  inspection.  But  this 
neglect  is  so  general  throughout  the  land 
that  parental  visitation  is  a  rare  exception. 

It  would  seem  that  natural  concern  for 
the  welfare  of  the  child  would  impel  the  par- 
ent to  visit  the  school  and  possess  himself  of 
the  most  absolute  of  all  evidence,  that  of  per- 
sonal observation,  in  regard  to  the  discipline. 
That  there  is  not  almost  continually  a  sprink- 
ling of  anxious  fathers  and  mothers  looking 
in  upon  the  discipline  of  their  children  is 
phenomenal,  and  almost  puzzles  philosophy. 


CONDITIONS    OF    ORDER   FOR    THE    PARENTS.  39 

The  fact  bears  on  its  face  a  terrible  charge, 
that  of  indifference  as  to  what  manner  of 
maturity  the  children  may  take  on.  To  a  de- 
gree, the  charge  is  sustained  by  facts.  Oth- 
er parents  compromise  with  their  consciences 
by  supposing  that  hired  watching  will  suffice. 
"We  shall  discuss  hired  watching  farther  on. 

Bad  discipline  exists  because  it  exists  un- 
seen ;  it  would  wither  under  the  common- 
sense  of  parental  scrutiny.  The  difficulty 
with  hired  watching  is  that  it  does  not  see 
with  the  eye  of  affection.  There  can  be  no 
substitute  for  parental  visitation.  Discipline 
will  lag  and  be  misinterpreted  until  parents 
discharge  this  sacred  duty. 

It  is  common  to  hear  parents  discussing 
the  teacher.  Such  discussions  are  fruitless, 
unless  those  parents  have  seen  that  teacher 
at  work.  They  cannot  discuss  profitably 
what  they  do  not  know ;  they  do  not  know 
the  teacher  whose  work  they  have  not  seen. 

The  parent  wTho  is  properly  affected  rec- 
ognizes the  necessity  of  having  authority  in 


40  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

/  the  schoolroom,  and  will  not  weaken  that 
[  authority  by  criticising  the  teacher  in  the 
!  presence  of  the  child.  All  discussions  of  the 
teacher  should  be  absolutely  removed  from 
the  child's  ear.  To  the  child  the  teacher 
should  be  perfection.  The  child's  own  im- 
pressions of  the  school  should  be  taken  for 
just  what  they  are  worth;  but  while  he  re- 
mains he  should  be  required  to  respect  the 
authority  and  superiority  of  the  teacher. 
There  is  little  chance  for  order  where  par- 
ents believe  the  teacher  is  unworthy  of  re- 
spect, and  openly  tell  their  children  so. 

The  parent  who  is  properly  affected  will 
remember  that  the  teacher  is  in  loco  par entis, 
and  that  the  child  should  carry  to  the  school- 
room the  same  submissive  allegiance  which 
he  renders  at  home.  Under  no  circum- 
stances should  the  parent  encourage  insub- 
ordination. It  is  a  lesson  in  crime.  Crime 
consists  in  a  violation  of  law ;  and  he  who 
has  learned  to  trample  upon  the  laws  of  the 
schoolroom  is  a  criminal  in  all  respects  except 


CONDITIONS    OF    ORDER   FOR   THE    PARENTS.    41 

the  disgrace  of  legal  punishment.  He  is  ripe 
for  the  commission  of  such  trespasses  as  will 
place  him  behind  prison-bars. 

We  see  in  this  instance  the  important  re- 
lation existing  between  order  in  the  scho6l- 
room  and  order  in  the  state,  or  public  order. 

But  the  foundation  of  all  is  family  order. 
If  there  is  not  a  recognized  authority  at  home, 
it  will  be  difficult  to  secure  recognition  of  au- 
thority elsewhere. 

Insubordination  generally  takes  its  rise  at 
home,  and  springs  from  three  causes — viz. : 
1st,  conflict  of  authority ;  2d,  abuse  of  au- 
thority ;  3d,  abdication  of  authority. 

A  conflict  of  authority  occurs  when  the 
father  and  mother  have  opposing  wishes  in 
regard  to  the  child's  conduct.  The  child, 
being  unable  to  obey  both,  is  led,  after  a 
period  of  confused  volition,  to  disobey  both. 
Abuse  of  authority  occurs  when  unjust  exac- 
tions are  required  from  the  child,  or  when 
unjust  punishments  are  inflicted  upon  him. 
The  effect  is  to  arouse  resentment,  which  is 


42  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

the  forerunner  of  rebellion.  Family  trag- 
edies are  but  the  collisions  of  wills  which 
have  been  thrown  out  of  their  proper  rela- 
tions either  by  conflict  of  authority  or  the 
abuse  of  it.  \A  rebellious  child  is  the  fruit 
of  faulty  home  discipline.  Such  a  child  is 
not  a  good  subject  for  school  discipline.  / 
Abdication  of  authority  occurs  when  par- 
ents permit  disobedience,  and  deliver  the 
child  over  to  its  own  inclinations.  This  is 
one  of  those  amiable  weaknesses  which  it  is 
difficult  to  condemn.  It  results  from  large 
affection,  which  is  of  itself  one  of  the  grand- 
est qualities  of  humanity.  The  child  is  given 
to  understand  that  he  may  obey  his  parent's 
wishes  if  it  chances  to  be  pleasant  for  him 
to  do  so.  But  if  the  obedience  involves  any 
personal  discomfort  or  any  violence  to  incli- 
nation, the  kind  parent  would  not  for  the 
world  have  him  put  himself  to  any  incon- 
venience. 

r    The   misguided   affection  which   abdicates 
(authority  may  be  at  times  so  shocked  with 


CONDITIONS    OF    ORDER   FOR   THE   PARENTS.  43 

the  caprice  of  a  spoiled  child  as  to  employ 
entreaty  and  remonstrance  in  order  to  re- 
strain it,  But  these  only  emphasize  the  ab-l 
dication,  and  give  the  child  additional  assur/ 
ance  that  he  is  a  law  unto  himself. 

Authorities  exist  in  the  schoolroom  and  in 
the  state;  the  child  should  be  prepared  to 
encounter  them  by  experiencing  a  whole- 
some subjection  at  home. 

The  will  of  the  parent  is  the  law  of  the 
household,  beyond  which  there  is  no  appeal, 
so  long  as  he  does  not  transcend  the  provis- 
ions of  civil  law.  This  will  should  be  in- 
flexible on  all  points  of  duty  and  allegiance 
from  the  child.  It  may,  if  needed,  employ 
force  in  order  to  secure  submission,  but  will 
not  push  the  force  beyond  the  necessities  of 
submission.  The  firm,  unyielding  will  of  the 
just  parent  produces  subordination;  the  iron 
will  of  the  unjust  parent  drives  his  child 
into  rebellion. 


4:4:  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  CHILDREN. 

THE  children  are  in  order — 1st,  when  they 
are  happy ;  2d,  when  they  respect  the  teacher 
and  his  office ;  3d,  when  they  feel  interested 
in  the  school  and  have  pride  in  its  success.  ; 

1st.  The  happy  alone  are  tractable.  This 
is  a  law  of  human  existence.  The  pursuit 
of  happiness  is  the  mainspring  of  human 
activity.  Happiness  is  fruition,  content;  un- 
happiness  is  want,  uneasiness.  Happiness  is 
a  phase  of  love;  and  love  is  submission. 

Volition  has  its  origin  in  the  desires;  the 
desires  originate  in  want;  they  wrere  created 
for  the  express  purpose  of  making  the  person 
unhappy,  so  that  he  would  will  to  supply  the 
want  in  order  to  escape  the  unhappiness. 
The  desires  are  blessings  without  which  hu- 
man existence  would  suddenly  cease;  for 
reason  alone  is  inadequate  to  the  preserva- 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  CHILDREN.   45 

tion  of  life.  In  an  important  sense,  then,  the 
desires  are  our  masters — imperious,  despotic 
masters — enforcing  their  authority  with  the 
sanction  of  keenest  torture. 

The  desires  of  childhood  are  few  and 
simple,  but  intense,  in  consequence  of  the 
excessive  demands  of  growth.  The  desires 
at  this  period  are  mostly  physical,  as  they 
have  the  task  both  of  sustaining  life  and 
providing  increase  of  structure.  These  im- 
perative physical  desires  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  desire  for  food,  the  desire  for  exer- 
cise, and  the  desire  for  repose — three  things 
absolutely  essential  to  physical  development. 

Children  have  one  imperious  moral  desire — 
viz.,  the  desire  of  love.  In  addition  to  these 
desires,  they  have  susceptibilities,  which  are 
either  incipient  desires  or  the  germs  of  fut- 
ure desires. 

Now,  when  abundant  provision  is  made  for 
the  imperious  desires,  and  reasonable  provis- 
ion for  the  susceptibilities,  the  child  is  in- 
tensely happy  and  tractable.  It  is  in  conse- 


46  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

quence  of  the  susceptibility  of  the  child  to 
enjoy  sweet  sounds  and  beautiful  sights  that 
music  and  pictures  are  introduced  into  the 
schoolroom,  and  shrubbery  into  the  play- 
ground, as  aids  to  discipline.  When  the 
conditions  of  happiness  are  understood  and 
supplied,  much  has  been  done  for  order. 

This  relation  of  happiness  to  obedience  is 
universal.  Suffering  armies  have  been  saved 
from  mutiny,  not  by  the  authority  of  the 
commander,  but  by  his  skill  in  recalling  their 
minds  from  their  physical  sufferings  to  the 
happiness  of  contemplating  the  recollections 
of  the  'past,  the  merits  of  their  cause,  and 
future  rewards.  What  is  the  inspiration  to 
do  and  dare  but  an  overwhelming  sense  of 
happiness  which  stifles  minor  tortures  ? 

The  authority  of  a  national  government  is 
tolerated  when  its  people  are  happy;  when 
anhappiness  seizes  them,  the  government  is 
menaced.  This  is  right ;  governments  exist 
for  the  happiness  of  the  governed. 

In  the  schoolroom  the  teacher  cannot  ex- 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  CHILDREN.   47 

pect  proper  submission  to  his  will  while  the 
children  are  lashed  into  agony  by  one  or 
other  of  their  despotic  desires.  There  occurs 
a  conflict  of  authority  which  demoralizes  the 
volition  of  the  child  and  disturbs  the  order 
of  the  school. 

2d.  Eespect  for  superior  ability  and  the 
functions  of  authority  are  everywhere  the  con- 
ditions of  willing  subordination.  Unwilling 
subordination  is  not  discipline ;  it  is  tyranny. 
There  will  not  be  order  in  the  school  if  the 
teacher  is  jeered  and  insulted  by  his  pupils 
out  of  school.  This  may  or  may  not  be  owing 
to  the  teacher's  fault,  but  it  is  nevertheless 
destructive  of  order  while  it  continues. 

3d.  Discipline  is  much  advanced  when  the 
children  realize  that  the  school  is  theirs  as 
completely  as  it  is  the  teacher's;  that  he  is 
only  a  necessary  part  of  it.  "When  this  point 
has  been  reached,  there  will  be  need  of  but 
few  commands  from  the  teacher ;  the  neces- 
sities of  the  school  may  be  freely  discussed, 
and  the  orders  issued  by  the  common  voice  of 


48  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

the  pupils.  Discipline  has  indeed  triumphed 
when  the  pupils  take  upon  themselves  the 
task  of  preserving  order. 

The  most  orderly  schools  in  this  country 
are  governed  by  the  public  opinion  of  tlie 
school.  It  has  been  the  writer's  good  fort- 
une to  see  several  schools  which  have  reach- 
ed this  grand  consummation.  In  these  cases 
the  presence  or  absence  of  the  teacher  made 
no  difference ;  the  pupils  were  on  their  hon- 
or, and  that  sufficed  for  order. 

We  are  searching  for  the  nature  of  that 
power  of  control  which  produces  and  sustains 
order  in  a  school;  and  we  begin  already  to 
see  that  it  is  a  moral  power.  We  get  the 
highest  control  over  others  by  teaching  them, 
both  by  precept  and  example,  to  control  them- 
selves. We  control  most  powerfully  by  indi- 
rection ;  the  wrord  of  the  popular  leader  will 
control  millions  to  his  purpose,  while  that  of 
the  titled  monarch  is  set  at  naught.  None 
but  a  moral  power  could  bring  about  the 
conditions  which  we  have  so  far  found  to  be 
essential  to  order  in  a  school. 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER.  49 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER, 

THE  teacher  is  in  order — 1st,  when  he  is 
thoroughly  master  of  himself;  2d,  when  he 
possesses  the  clearest  mastery  of  the  subjects 
he  is  presumed  to  teach ;  3d,  when  he  ap- 
prehends correctly  the  relations  surrounding 
and  centring  in  him. 

1st.  Self-mastery  is  character.  Character 
is  a  life  conformed  to  the  moral  law.  It  is 
a  growth  ;  it  is  the  seal  of  man's  maturity ; 
it  is  the  symbol  of  victory  in  the  struggles 
writh  the  evil  propensities  of  human  nature. 

To  the  man  of  character  life  has  become  a 
science  ;  his  volition  is  no  longer  controlled 
by  impulse,  but  by  fixed  and  definite  princi- 
ples of  action.  His  principles  are  his  iden- 
tity ;  if  they  are  defeated  in  a  single  instance, 
he  is  humiliated  in  his  own  esteem.  To  him 
any  shock  to  self-respect  is  more  painful  than 
D 


50      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

the  criticisms  of  the  public.  His  ready  sense 
of  rectitude  and  propriety,  his  conscience,  he 
prizes  above  all  other  considerations.  He  is 
under  the  dominion  of  conscience. 

Deportment  may  be  formed  by  external  in- 
fluences; but  character  is  shaped  only  from 
within.  The  world  is  too  apt  to  mistake 
deportment  for  character;  but  the  deception 
is  short-lived.  There  come  occasions  in  the 
history  of  every  man  which  test  his  quali- 
ties, and  tear  away  the  mask  from  his  real 
strength  or  weakness. 

Complaisance  is  but  the  shadow  of  char- 
acter ;  it  is  folly  to  ape  the  form  and  ignore 
the  substance.  A  habit  of  appearing  good  is 
pleasant  to  the  eye,  but  deceptive  and  treach- 
erous to  the  experience ;  but  a  habit  of  be- 
ing good  is  beyond  all  price ;  it  is  the  rock 
upon  which  society  rests. 

Perhaps  nothing  in  the  history  of  society 
has  been  so  completely  perverted  and  abused 
as  politeness.  It  should  be  the  mark  of 
greatness  of  soul ;  but  it  has  too  often  been 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER.  51 

studied  in  all  its  points  and  put  on  as  a  gar- 
ment to  conceal  the  designs  of  a  villain. 
Every  community  in  civilized  countries  lias 
had  its  experience  with  polished  rascality, 
which  for  the  moment  has  eclipsed  the 
merits  of  virtuous  and  honorable  men  wrho 
chanced  to  have  some  angles  in  their  man- 
ners. 

We  would  not  defend  coarseness,  nor  make 
it  the  infallible  sign  of  excellence ;  but  wre 
would  have  that  breeding  which  begins  at 
the  core  and  finishes  on  the  surface.  We 
have  had  abundance  of  whitened  sepulchres ; 
the  type  is  immortalized  in  "  The  mildest- 
mannered  man  that  ever  scuttled  ship  or  cut 
a  throat."  What  we  want  is  character ;  and 
we  shall  be  glad  to  have  it  polite.  The 
amenities  of  life  which  we  prize  so  highly 
have  had  their  origin  in  innate  kindness. 

But  character  is  essential  to  discipline  in  a 
school;  it  gives  a  rally  ing -point  for  order, 
and  gives  to  precept  the  sanction  of  example. 
None  but  a  settled  character  is  competent  to 


52  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 

preside  over  the  discipline  of  a  school.  The 
children  have  more  logic  than  they  are  gen- 
erally credited  with,  and  are  quick  to  detect 
the  variance  between  precept  and  example. 
They  are  loath  to  cleave  to  duty  when  they 
perceive  it  to  be  a  one-sided  affair. 

There  are  stages  in  character.  First  there 
is  uncertain  character ;  then  there  is  either 
character  or  want  of  character.  We  choose 
to  use  these  terms  in  making  the  distinc- 
tions, in  order  that  the  grand  word  charac- 
ter may  be  saved  to  a  specific  and  definite 
meaning.  It  means  such  a  loyalty  to  con- 
science as  will  not  deviate  a  hair's -breadth 
though  the  heavens  fall.  It  means  a  deter- 
mination to  do  right  because  it  is  right,  re- 
gardless of  consequences.  It  means  the  cour- 
age to  endure  pain  and  loss,  if  need  be,  in  or- 
der to  vindicate  the  right. 

That  is  not  character  which  does  right 
when  it  is  convenient  or  politic,  but  does 
wrong  when  unobserved  or  when  trial  comes. 
Doubtless  many  people  are  self-deceived  as 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER.  53 

to  which  of  the  stages  they  are  in,  and  may 
imagine  that  they  have  character  because 
they  have  never  been  tempted  to  do  wrong. 

Only  the  person  of  character  is  competent 
to  preserve  order.  The  villain  can  only 
poison  and  demoralize ;  the  person  of  uncer- 
tain character  is  imbecile. 

Uncertain  character  is  an  accompaniment 
of  youth,  the  period  of  the  strife  between 
good  intentions  and  bad  propensities.  The 
actions  of  the  individual  at  this  period  are 
marked  by  the  most  striking  contrasts  and 
inconsistencies,  without  any  fixed  centre  of 
motive.  One  so  loose  in  conduct  is  not 
adapted  to  impart  stability  to  others.  When 
wrangles  occur  between  the  child-teacher  and 
the  other  children  under  his  charge,  the  par- 
ents will  be  apt  to  take  sides  with  their  own 
children  as  against  the  stranger. 

Whether  this  uncertain  character  will  de- 
velop into  character  or  want  of  character  is 
often  a  mere  problem  of  circumstances.  In 
any  case,  it  imports  disaster  to  the  order  of  a 


54:      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

school  when  persons  in  this  stage  are  ap- 
pointed to  exercise  its  government. 

Youth  is  not  a  crime  ;  but  it  is  a  crime  to 
employ  that  youth  for  purposes  to  which  it 
is  not  fitted.  The  purpose  to  which  it  is 
least  fitted  is  that  of  allaying  the  turbulent 
and  often  disordered  impulses  of  childhood. 
It  needs  the  experience  of  self-mastery  in 
order  to  read  correctly  the  childish  nature 
and  be  prepared  to  deal  with  it.  Maturity 
may  be  hastened  by  effort ;  but  it  is  also 
true  that  many  persons  never  pass  the  thresh- 
old of  youth,  and  die  young  though  they  live 
to  be  fourscore. 

Character  not  only  gives  the  teacher  influ- 
ence in  the  schoolroom,  but  it  also  protects 
him  from  being  misrepresented  and  misun- 
derstood outside,  and  so  contributes  to  other 
conditions  of  order. 

We  have  said  that  character  is  shaped 
from  within.  Without  introspection  the  for- 
mation of  a  symmetrical  character  is  almost 
an  impossibility.  What  do  we  see  on  looking 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER.  55 

within  ?  We  behold  a  complex  structure  of 
organs,  faculties,  and  powers,  rising  in  a  given 
order  of  importance,  all  having  certain  func- 
tions to  perform,  all  having  certain  relations 
to  sustain  to  each  other  and  to  the  surround- 
ing universe ;  we  see,  in  short,  "  How  fearful- 
ly and  wonderfully  we  are  made !"  We  see 
the  temple  of  man's  personality,  the  house 
intrusted  to  his  special  care,  and  for  which 
he  is  held  to  a  solemn  accountability ;  we 
see  the  purposes  of  its  parts,  the  conditions 
of  their  health,  and  the  method  by  which 
the  house  is  kept  in  order. 

We  take  an  inventory  of  our  possessions, 
note  the  purposes  to  which  they  were  de- 
signed, and  begin  our  first  act  of  govern- 
ment. That  government  consists  in  restrain- 
ing rebellious  parts,  and  rousing  into  activity 
others  which  have  a  tendency  to  lie  dormant. 
When  the  evil  propensities  are  held  in  check, 
and  all  the  faculties  roused  to  the  full  dis- 
charge of  their  functions,  we  have  an  harmo- 
nious existence — we  have  a  stable  man. 


56      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

But  this  government  is  not  a  phase  of  self- 
ishness, nor  of  self-sufficiency.  Rising  above 
all  the  other  faculties  and  powers  in  the  hu- 
man composition  are  enthroned  the  natural 
and  spiritual  affections,  craving  objects  be- 
yond self,  and  drawing  man  into  communion 
with  his  Maker  and  his  kind.  This  is  the 
status  of  character — an  enlightened  will  in- 
fluenced by  love.  This  is  the  character  req- 
uisite to  the  preservation  of  civil  order,  of 
wrhich  a  school  is  but  a  phase. 

We  will  not  discuss  here  the  influence  of 
character  in  shaping  the  children's  lives ;  our 
present  purpose  is  to  show  its  relation  to 
discipline.  In  order  to  do  this,  we  are 
obliged  to  reveal  its  nature  and  the  manner 
of  its  acquisition. 

2d.  Attention  is  an  essential  and  powerful 
element  of  order.  The  absolute  calm  of  a 
"  spell  -  bound "  audience  is  a  thing  well 
known;  and  its  laws  are  in  a  measure  un- 
derstood. It  is  not  regarded  as  an  act  of 
volition  in  compliment  to  the  speaker.  It 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOE  THE  TEACHER.  57 

is  known  to  be  due  to  the  relation  of  mind 
to  ideas,  of  which  the  speaker  is  but  the 
exciting  cause. 

He  arrests  attention  by  making  vividly 
present  a  train  of  ideas  which  recall  the 
wandering  activities  of  the  mind  to  a  con- 
centration in  a  given  direction.  This  con- 
centration produces  stillness.  While  the  en- 
forced stillness  of  a  few  moments  is  painful, 
audiences  have  been  known  to  hang  for  hours 
on  the  words  of  an  effective  speaker  with- 
out any  discomfort,  and  to  regret  even  then 
that  the  end  was  come. 

The  power  of  vivid  ideas  in  securing  or- 
der is  not  limited  to  any  class  of  humani- 
ty ;  the  vile  and  low,  as  well  as  the  wor- 
thy and  cultivated,  are  equally  susceptible 
to  its  influence.  This  power  has  been  so 
often  illustrated  as  to  give  rise  to  the  prov- 
erb, "They  came  to  scoff,  but  remained  to 
pray." 

Cultivated  persons  acquire  measurable  con- 
trol over  their  attention,  and  can  direct  it 


58  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

at  will  to  given  subjects.  Training  likewise 
produces  habit ;  and  so,  after  much  practice, 
there  may  result  a  habit  of  giving  attention. 
But  children  are  under  the  control  of  phys- 
ical impulses  and  mental  fancies,  and,  in 
consequence,  they  are  prone  to  manifesta- 
tions of  activity  that  are  not  in  keeping 
with  order.  But  they  are  not  exempt  from 
the  power  of  ideas;  and  this  power  steps 
in  to  win  them  from  themselves. 

But  there  is  no  flashing  of  ideas  in  rote- 
teaching.  It  proves  an  irksome  drudgery  to 
the  children,  increasing  their  discomfort  and 
multiplying  the  tendencies  to  disorder.  A 
parody  on  true  teaching  is  that  process  of 
giving  the  children  text -books  and  telling 
them  to  get  knowledge  and  culture  for  them- 
selves—  knowledge  and  culture  which  per- 
chance the  teacher  does  not  possess.  Noth- 
ing is  better  fitted  to  discourage  the  learner 
utterly,  and  make  him  distrust  his  mental 
powers,  than  such  a  course.  Discourage  a 
child  by  mechanical  teaching,  and  you  pre- 


CONDITIONS  OF  OEDEK  FOR  THE  TEACHEK.  59 

pare  him  to  become  either  an  adult  dolt  or 
a  distinguished  reprobate. 

Mechanical  teaching  is  worse  than  none ; 
it  is  a  positive  injury  :  it  perverts  the  child- 
ish nature,  and  is  largely  responsible  for  the 
imbecility  and  crime  which  afflict  the  country. 

In  the  United  States  to-day  vast  sums  are 
annually  expended  in  the  production  of  in- 
jury to  individual  happiness  and  to  the 
national  welfare.  It  would  seem  that  evil 
is  plentiful  enough  without  paying  for  it. 
Many  taxpayers  have  had  this  thought  dawn 
upon  them,  and  have  wisely  decided  to  pay 
as  little  as  possible  for  the  evils  imposed 
upon  them.  In  many  communities  the  pub- 
lic school  is  practically  repudiated,  though 
the  forms  are  retained.  The  forms  are  en- 
dured in  order  to  comfort  some  people  who 
think  forms  are  capable  of  accomplishing 
something,  and  because  forms  are  necessary 
in  order  to  secure  state  aid. 

That  mastery  of  the  subject  which  intro- 
duces the  power  of  ideas  into  the  govern- 


60      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

ment  of  a  school  is  wanting — 1st,  in  those 
persons  who  never  had  a  solid  grasp  of  any 
subject — that  is,  persons  who  have  been  su- 
perficially  educated,  or  rather  ??ia/-educated ; 
2d,  those  persons  who  were  once  in  fair 
mental  condition,  but  have  lost  their  stu- 
dious habits. 

He  who  ceases  to  advance  in  knowledge 
must  recede.  The  individual  who  some  time 
ago  reached  a  resting-place  in  his  mental 
achievements  is  properly  called  a  fossil.  A 
fossil  is  a  dead  thing  retaining  some  hints 
of  its  former  self.  So,  too,  knowledge  may 
die,  and  yet  retain  resemblances  to  its  living 
state. 

Yivid  ideas  mean  literally  live  ideas,  pul- 
sating ideas.  There  is  in  live  knowledge  a 
circulation,  just  as  there  is  a  circulation  with- 
in the  frame  of  the  living  animal.  This  cir- 
culation in  knowledge  is  called  the  law  of 
mental  association.  The  sum  total  of  knowl- 
edge is  a  unit.  "We  have  a  universe  in  which 
all  things  known  and  unknown  are  tied  to- 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER.  61 

get  her  into  one  whole  by  the  interweaving 
strands  of  relations.  These  strands  are  clues 
which  the  mind  loves  to  follow,  and  which 
the  cultivated  mind  must  follow.  When  a 
new  idea  is  discovered,  it  must  be  adjusted. 
The  mind  runs  down  the  existing  strands  to 
see  that  the  connection  is  complete,  and  in 
its  progress  illuminates  and  vitalizes  the  pre- 
vious wisdom.  Again,  the  mind  gathers  im- 
petus for  new  conquests  by  swift  excursions 
over  existing  lines. 

Herein  we  see  the  mental  circulation  and 
the  vitalizing  effects  produced  by  fresh  in- 
vestigations. The  reviews  necessitated  by 
research,  and  impelled  by  discovery,  bring 
out  our  old  knowledge  into  greater  distinct- 
ness, and  adorn  it  with  new  meanings. 

By  such  discipline  the  mind  becomes  so 
familiar  with  its  strands  that  it  acquires  a 
habit  of  sweeping  through  them  with  light- 
ning speed  on  the  least  exciting  occasion. 
Then  ideas  do  not  come  singly,  but  in 
trains — for  the  mind  must  sweep  the  strands. 


62  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

Stop  your  progress  and  you  stop  the  ne- 
cessities for  excursions;  soon  you  stop  the 
habit  of  excursions,  and  ere  long  the  old,  un- 
visited  stores  become  mere  reminiscences  in 
memory.  When  the  mind  would  get  at 
them,  it  must  stumble  with  crutches  over 
ground  which  it  once  swept  with  the  swift- 
ness and  ease  of  Mercury.  It  adheres  anx- 
iously to  any  old  waymarks  that  may  be  left, 
and  hugs  the  ruts  as  its  only  salvation  from 
being  utterly  lost.  Gone  are  the  trains  of 
ideas ;  gone  the  power  to  captivate  the  mind 
and  recall  it  from  its  disorder. 

What  remains  ?  Nothing  but  a  process  of 
hooking  up  the  dead  and  stale  ideas  of  the 
past  and  forcing  them  into  unwilling  minds 
that  have  no  appetite  for  even  wholesome 
food.  Either  that  or  words — words,  the  coun- 
terfeits of  knowledge — a  leaning  on  the  lan- 
guage of  the  text -book  instead  of  on  the 
possessions  of  the  mind. 

It  is  characteristic  of  teachers  who  are 
not  masters  of  their  subjects  to  be  very  con- 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER.  63 

scientious  about  compelling  the  children  to 
master  them.  The  state  of  the  appetite 
and  the  quality  of  the  food  are  altogether 
overlooked,  while  the  business  of  cramming 
by  quantity  goes  grimly  and  persistently  on. 
There  is  an  old  adage  about  the  ability  to 
lead  a  horse  to  water,  and  the  inability  to 
make  him  drink.  The  animal  can  protect 
his  organs  of  nutrition  from  abuse ;  but  the 
poor  child  undertakes  to  gorge  himself  with 
the  innutritious  things  set  before  him,  and 
in  consequence  gets  his  mind  into  the  ut- 
most disorder.  So  great  and  permanent  is 
this  disorder  that  it  has  given  rise  to  the 
term  "  unlearn,"  a  word  familiar  to  good 
teachers  who  have  been  compelled  to  re- 
ceive the  relics  of  mismanagement. 

In  alluding  to  superficial  teachers,  we  do 
not  necessarily  mean  the  young;  nor,  in  al- 
luding to  fossil  teachers,  do  we  necessarily 
mean  the  old.  The  distinction  occurs  on 
inherent  condition,  not  on  age;  the  terms 
are  frequently  reversed. 


64:      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

None  but  a  progressive  teacher  is  compe- 
tent to  discipline  a  school.  In  addition  to 
the  laws  already  laid  down,  we  may  add 
that  the  discovery  in  him  of  any  halting 
ignorance  or  want  of  clearness  will  imme- 
diately undermine  his  authority  by  weaken- 
ing respect  for  him. 

The  mark  of  a  progressive  teacher  is  in- 
tellectual diligence  inspired  by  a  thirst  after 
knowledge.  He  may  be  known  by  the  com- 
pany he  keeps — that  is,  by  the  books  he  reads 
and  the  studies  he  pursues  out  of  school. 
Unless  his  record  is  satisfactory  on  these 
points,  the  presumption  is  against  his  power 
to  produce  and  sustain  order. 

3d.  We  use  the  term  apprehension  of  re- 
lations rather  than  knowledge  of  relations. 
A  knowledge  of  all  the  relations  centring  in 
a  particular  school  is  something  that  would 
require  long -continued  observation,  even  if 
the  task  did  not  prove  infinite.  But  a  ready 
apprehension  of  relations,  accompanying  dil- 
igent observation,  will  enable  a  person  to 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOB  THE  TEACHER.  65 

begin  the  great  work  of  disciplining  a 
school. 

The  manifestations  of  disorder  are  effects 
of  given  causes.  A  very  ordinary  mind  will 
be  conscious  of  the  disorder;  but  ready  ap- 
prehension of  relations  in  the  teacher  will 
enable  him  to  detect  the  cause  lying  back 
of  the  manifestation. 

We  are  now  prepared  for  an  analogy 
which  is  true  and  complete,  and  through 
which  the  whole  nature  of  discipline  dawns 
upon  us.  Disorder  is  of  the  nature  of  dis- 
ease ;  the  teacher  is  the  physician  on  whom 
devolves  the  task  of  cure;  and  discipline  is 
a  remedial  system.  The  physician  is  latent 
while  the  school  is  in  order,  and  then  the 
instructor  has  the  floor;  but  the  physician 
steps  forward  at  the  first  symptoms  of  ill- 
ness, reads  its  nature,  and  begins  its  treat- 
ment. 

In  medicine,  a  failure  to  understand  the 
symptoms  leads  to  disaster  in  the  treatment; 
the  quack,  by  his  blunders,  makes  the  diffi- 
E 


66  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

culty  chronic  instead  of  driving  it  from  the 
system  in  its  acute  stages.  Moral  disease  is 
more  intricate  than  physical  maladies,  and  re- 
quires a  higher  order  of  skill  and  science  in 
its  treatment. 

As  we  ascend  in  the  scale  of  being,  we  dis- 
cover more  complex  structure,  more  delicate- 
ly interwoven  relations.  We  rise  through  the 
physical  and  mental  before  we  reach  the  mor- 
al nature.  But,  in  addition  to  greater  com- 
plexity, there  is  the  greater  difficulty  of  mor- 
al investigation.  The  things  of  the  physical 
nature  may  be  seen  by  the  physical  eye,  felt 
by  the  physical  touch,  and  their  relations  de- 
termined by  a  simple  exercise  of  intellectual 
apprehension ;  but  the  things  of  the  moral 
nature  are  apparent  only  to  moral  discern- 
ment. Besides,  as  moral  disorder  often  re- 
sults from  physical  causes,  the  moral  phy- 
sician must  be  wise  in  physical  things.  It 
is  therefore  a  higher  science. 

And  yet  nations  throw  the  strongest  legal 
safeguards  around  medicine,  while  they  leave 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER.  67 

the  flood-gates  open  for  the  most  unlimited 
moral  quackery.  The  evils  of  physical  mal- 
practice strike  mainly  at  individuals,  who 
have  refuge  at  least  in  death;  while  moral 
malpractice  strikes  at  society,  the  individual 
that  never  dies. 

The  wise  teacher,  then,  will  put  a  disor- 
derly school  under  treatment.  Time  is  al- 
wrays  an  element  in  treatment ;  it  is  essential 
to  have  faith  in  remedies  and  in  patience;  a 
sudden  transition  from  chaos  to  order  is  an 
impossibility. 

The  disorder  may  take  its  rise  in  the  school- 
room, produced,  perhaps,  by  physical  discom- 
fort. In  that  case,  the  remedy  consists  in  im- 
proving the  seats,  and  attending  to  the  warmth, 
ventilation,  and  all  the  other  conditions  of 
happiness.  But  the  child  may  come  freight- 
ed with  tendencies  to  disorder  imposed  upon 
him  outside.  In  this  case  the  treatment  be- 
comes more  complex  and  cure  less  sudden. 
It  is  the  teacher's  duty  to  reclaim  this  child, 
and  to  do  it  with  the  least  possible  loss  to  the 


68  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

school.  It  is  not  only  his  duty,  but  also  his 
interest — the  most  direct  means  of  securing 
order. 

People's  notions  are  generally  mere  notions ; 
they  are  not  conclusions  founded  on  any  ex- 
tensive ratiocinations.  When  the  teacher  has 
apprehended  the  specific  causes  of  disorder  in 
his  district,  it  is  his  business  to  get  the  people 
out  of  their  notions  —  to  make  them  think ; 
that  is,  it  is  his  business  to  be  an  influence. 
He  will  find  ways  and  means  of  getting  access 
to  their  thoughts.  It  has  been  done,  over  and 
over;  the  notions  of  communities  have  been 
completely  revolutionized  by  good  schools ; 
and  the  children  have  often  proved  the  most 
efficient  missionaries.  It  is  only  a  problem 
in  human  nature  which  is  everywhere  the 
same ;  the  teacher  should  not  despair  of  suc- 
cess. 

Apprehension  of  relations  is  a  great  power 
in  the  teacher,  for  it  enables  him  to  utilize 
immediate  and  present  facts  in  his  govern- 
ment and  instruction. 


CONDITIONS  OF  ORDER  FOR  THE  TEACHER.  69 

It  will,  perhaps,  be  already  inferred  that 
the  teacher  cannot  enforce  order  by  a  mere 
act  of  will.  A  firm  will  is  a  valuable  ele- 
ment in  the  production  of  order  when  sup- 
plemented with  the  other  conditions.  There 
are  no  fruits  of  human  activity  without  in- 
tense and  sustained  volition.  It  is  unfortu- 
nate that  most  of  the  will-power  in  the 
world  is  expended  in  behalf  of  selfishness. 
This  selfishness  will  appear  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  school-room. 

We  have  said  that  it  requires  very  little 
mind  to  be  conscious  of  disturbance.  Self- 
ishness is  annoyed  by  the  manifestations  of 
disorder,  and  wills  their  summary  suppres- 
sion. Its  pride  of  authority  is  offended  by 
failure  to  comply  with  its  commands ;  and 
violence  is  enlisted  to  give  the  sanction  of 
fear.  But  the  violence  does  not  always  have 
the  credit  of  an  external  though  mistaken 
motive  ;  it  too  often  occurs  as  a  simple  ex- 
plosion of  the  teacher's  anger,  and  is  there- 
fore intensely  selfish. 


70  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

The  worst  disorders  in  schools  are  pro- 
duced by  disorderly  teachers.  This  tyran- 
nical self-assertion  may  so  far  triumph  as  to 
produce  the  silence  of  the  grave.  Even  then 
we  have  the  antipodes  of  order ;  for  we  have 
a  company  of  unhappy  children  learning  to 
hate  authority  and  restraint,  and  ready  to  in- 
dulge in  the  wildest  license  as  soon  as  the 
fear-inspired  restraint  is  removed.  We  have 
children  who  will  wield  power  as  brutally, 
wrhen  it  is  placed  in  their  own  hands,  as 
they  found  it  wielded  over  themselves. 

We  want  strong  will  in  the  world ;  but  we 
want  the  will  that  is  not  selfish  ;  we  want  the 
will  of  Howard,  of  Wilberforce,  of  Florence 
Nightingale,  of  Bergh.  The  end  of  govern- 
ment is  order.  That  end  will  not  be  at- 
tained by  wrong  methods.  In  the  majority 
of  cases  we  can  but  approximate  to  order; 
we  approximate  by  creating  tendencies  tow- 
ard order  and  removing  the  tendencies  to 
disorder.  There  is  no  other  way.  If  vic- 
tory is  slow  in  some  cases,  there  is  comfort 


CONDITIONS    OF   ORDER   FOR   THE   TEACHER.  71 

in  the  consciousness  of  some  advance,  be  it 
never  so  small.  When  the  case  is  thorough- 
ly understood,  and  when  proper  methods  are 
brought  to  bear,  then  there  is  use  for  the  ut- 
most will-power  in  pushing  the  conflict  be- 
tween good  and  evil. 


72  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 


CAUSES  OF  DISORDER. 

IN  the  pathology  of  our  remedial  system 
there  are  found  three  general  causes  of  dis- 
order:  viz.,  1st,  natural  deformity;  2d,  mere 
neglect;  3d,  the  reaction  of  injustice.  The 
first  gives  incapacity  for  principles,  the  sec- 
ond want  of  principles,  and  the  third  bad 
principles. 

1st.  A  few  unfortunate  children  are  born 
without  a  moral  nature,  and  are  consequent- 
ly incapable  of  any  moral  life.  They  are 
helpless  wrards  on  the  sympathy  and  charity 
of  others,  and  seldom  enter  among  the  prob- 
lems of  school  discipline. 

2d.  Children  may  have  such  negative  or 
passive  influences  about  them  that  their 
moral  qualities  are  in  no  way  excited.  In 
this  case  we  have  a  mere  animal  existence, 
or  what  is  called  vegetation.  The  moral 


CAUSES    OF    DISOKDEK.  73 


powers  become  torpid  by  disuse ;  and  the 
principal  motives  to  action  are  the  physical 
sensations.  We  have  a  sort  of  stupid  and 
meaningless  amiability,  an  utter  absence  of  vo- 
lition, while  the  conditions  of  physical  com- 
fort are  supplied.  But  mere  amiability  is 
not  order  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  constantly 
jeopardizes  order  by  its  want  of  moral  per- 
ception. The  uncultured  child  is  not  always 
amiable ;  it  may  be  possessed  of  a  comba- 
tive and  undiscriminating  obtuseness  result- 
ing from  its  own  innate  propensities. 

In  either  case  the  child  is  out  of  order. 
There  is  order  only  where  there  is  intelli- 
gent volition — that  is,  where  obedience  is  im- 
mediately enforced  by  the  dictates  of  an  en- 
lightened conscience.  This  point  is  reached, 
however,  through  the  employment  of  many 
mediate  forces.  Some  of  these  mediate  forces 
have  been  hinted  at  already,  and  others  will 
be  discussed  farther  on.  Where  there  is  only 
moral  torpidity,  the  task  of  government  is 
much  less  difficult  than  where  there  lias  been 
moral  perversion. 


74:  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

3d.  Torpidity  or  moral  nonentity  can  only 
occur  where  there  are  no  schools.  A  school 
excites  the  mental  and  moral  faculties,  and 
tends  to  make  the  children  either  better  or 
worse  than  they  would  naturally  vegetate. 
There  is  little  chance  for  pure  vegetation  in 
this  country  now,  our  schools  are  so  universal, 
and  have  been  so  long  established ;  they  have 
touched  several  generations.  The  effect,  how- 
ever, has  been  mostly  for  the  worse.  The 
country  is  full  of  notions,  a  result  unques- 
tionably due  to  the  schools.  The  aggressive 
reprobates  who  poison  the  morals  and  order 
of  communities  are  undoubtedly  the  products 
of  the  schools.  We  mean  by  this,  of  course, 
mismanaged  schools,  which  have  inflicted  the 
most  wide -spread  injustice  and  consequent 
disorder. 

We  have  reached,  then,  the  prevailing  cause 
of  disorder,  and  shall  examine  it  closely.  In- 
justice is  a  violation  of  personal  rights,  and  is 
a  specific  form  of  wrong.  Wrong  is  an  act 
or  omission  at  variance  with  the  will  of  the 


CAUSES    OF   DISORDER.  75 

Creator ;  injustice  is  an  abuse  of  the  relations 
existing  between  man  and  man. 

All  men  are  equally  God's  creatures,  equal- 
ly dependent  on  his  beneficence,  and  are  en- 
titled to  an  equal  share  of  the  blessings  he 
bestows  upon  a  fruitful  earth.  God  is  110  re- 
specter of  persons;  there  is  no  monopoly  of 
blessings. 

The  power  to  breathe  and  the  necessity  for 
breathing  carry  with  them  the  right  to  use 
the  air  which  has  been  placed  around  the 
globe.  The  power  to  feed  and  the  necessity 
for  feeding  carry  with  them  the  right  to  par- 
take of  the  productions  of  nature.  And  so, 
generally,  faculties  and  necessities  carry  with 
them  the  right  to  their  proper  nutriment.  In 
short,  man  has  a  right  to  fulfil  the  purposes 
of  his  existence  and  to  share  in  the  things 
necessary  to  that  fulfilment. 

This  is  the  general  law  of  rights,  the  moral 
law,  the  will  of  God  in  regard  to  his  creatures. 
The  sacredness  of  these  rights  comes  from 
the  sanction  of  Omniscience. 


76      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

Moralists  have  summed  up  the  rights  of 
men  into  the  right  to  life  and  the  right  to 
liberty.  Our  Declaration  adds  the  right  to 
the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  but  this  is  em- 
braced in  the  right  to  liberty. 

These  rights  are  called  inalienable — that  is, 
inseparable  from  human  personality ;  they 
are  the  leading  characteristics  of  manhood, 
and  whoever  restricts  them  performs  an  act 
of  injustice. 

Our  government  is  founded  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  equal  and  exact  justice  to  all.  The 
nation  will  never  be  truly  prosperous  until 
this  principle  is  universally  recognized  and 
applied. 

There  are  three  recognized  causes  of  just 
alienation  of  personal  rights  :  viz.,  1st,  volun- 
tary choice  ;  2d,  crime  ;  3d,  the  necessities  of 
society. 

A  man  may  surrender  his  liberty  or  even 
his  life,  a  thing  often  done  with  credit  in  the 
cause  of  benevolence  or  patriotism.  Where 
this  is  done,  human  nature  rises  to  the  sub- 


CAUSES    OF   DISOEDEE.  77 

lime.  Self-abnegation  is  the  true  measure  of 
size  and  greatness.  Mere  intellect  may  fill  a 
space  and  be  intensified  in  power  by  wicked- 
ness ;  but  it  is  always  measurable.  It  may 
even  appear  contemptible  in  its  littleness 
when  analyzed  and  laid  open  in  its  naked  de- 
formity. Only  greatness  of  heart  catches  at 
the  infinite  and  defies  analysis.  We  cannot 
measure  the  motive  to  the  act  of  generous 
self  -  immolation  ;  we  can  only  admire  the 
flash  from  the  spirit  of  Eternal  Goodness. 
The  grave  of  noble  self-sacrifice  is  the  only 
shrine  of  greatness.  It  would  seem  that  such 
graves  are  given  us  to  be  our  instructors,  to 
show  the  possibilities  of  human  powers.  A 
single  deed  of  generous  devotion  embodies 
more  of  wisdom,  more  of  instruction,  more 
of  grandeur,  than  a  cycle  of  plodding,  jostling 
selfishness.  Happy  the  community  that  has 
such  eloquence  in  its  midst.  Shame  on  the 
muse  that  would  prostitute  its  gift  to  the  un- 
seemly and  mercenary  task  of  galvanizing 
little  selfishness  while  the  earth's  bosom  is 


78  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

enriched  with  the  remains  of  so  many  real 
kings ! 

A  man  may  encounter  danger  or  death  in 
the  assertion  of  his  convictions;  but  this  is 
not  surrender.  It  is  rather  the  exercise  of  the 
highest  liberty,  that  of  liberty  of  conscience. 
The  patient  endurance  of  the  martyr  ranks 
with  the  voluntary  offering  of  the  hero,  in 
that  it  rises  above  selfishness.  The  one  dig- 
nifies the  human  heart,  while  the  other  digni- 
fies the  human  conscience.  The  one  is  sub- 
lime in  his  impulse,  the  other  is  sublime  in 
his  courage  and  constancy  to  principle.  They 
are  both  heroes  in  that  they  can  defy  danger 
in  order  to  do  what  they  think  is  right.  But 
there  is  this  distinction  between  them :  the 
intellect  may  be  at  fault  in  its  cause,  the 
heart  never. 

A  man  may  with  propriety  restrict  his  own 
rights  through  prudential  motives ;  but  if  he 
endangers  them  through  merely  selfish  mo- 
tives, there  is  no  heroism  in  the  act ;  other- 
wise the  burglar  is  a  hero. 


CAUSES   OF   DISOEDEE.  79 

Criminals  forfeit  all  rights ;  and  the  just 
punishments  for  crime  consist  in  losses  of 
rights  proportioned  to  the  nature  of  the  of- 
fence. 

Society  is  the  condition  of  man's  existence. 
He  is  born  into  society.  It  is  only  through 
society  that  he  can  attain  his  highest  end.  It 
is  for  these  reasons  that  society  can  justly 
command  his  services  and  use  his  powers, 
though  the  use  may  cost  him  his  liberty  and 
even  his  life.  Society  has  the  right  to  com- 
mand its  members  to  act  in  accordance  with 
its  necessities.  But  society  has  no  right  to 
be  capricious  and  to  invade  the  rights  of  in- 
dividuals at  will.  Society,  like  individuals, 
finds  the  origin  of  its  rights  in  faculties 
and  necessities ;  and  its  rights  are  likewise 
summed  up  in  the  general  right  to  attain  its 
end. 

With  this  general  view  of  the  nature  of 
rights  and  injustice,  we  shall  proceed  to  no- 
tice the  personal  rights  at  stake  in  a  school. 
There  are  four  persons  or  factors  concerned 


80      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

in  a  school ;  there  will,  consequently,  be  four 
classes  of  personal  rights. 

The  district  has  a  right — 1st,  to  the  careful 
preservation  of  the  property  it  purchases ; 
2d,  to  the  comfort  of  an  improved  public 
sentiment  resulting  from  a  well-ordered 
school ;  3d,  to  the  enhanced  value  of  prop- 
erty resulting  from  the  same  cause. 

The  nature  of  the  first  and  third  rights 
will  be  apparent  to  all,  and  the  propriety  of 
their  existence  self-evident. 

The  second  may  also  be  made  to  appear  a 
tangible  reality.  It  includes  two  things :  viz., 
happiness  and  security.  The  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness is  one  of  the  great  ends  of  life,  and 
every  increase  of  happiness  is  gain.  That 
moral  and  intelligent  neighbors  are  a  source 
of  happiness  will  be  conceded  on  imagining 
them  to  be  suddenly  exchanged  for  others 
low  and  vile. 

Insecurity  not  only  detracts  from  happi- 
ness, and  thus  robs  life  of  its  reward,  but  it 
also  increases  expense — the  expense  of  heavy 


CAUSES    OF   DISORDER.  81 

police  and  armies.  A  people  instructed  in 
the  nature  of  right  and  wrong,  and  in  respect 
for  authority,  are  less  liable  to  violate  the  laws 
and  disturb  the  peace  of  communities  than 
those  who  are  ignorant  and  vicious ;  that  is, 
they  are  self-governing ;  and  the  expensive 
machinery  of  protection  may  be  reduced  or 
dispensed  with. 

It  is  on  the  supposition  that  returns  are 
made  in  the  forms  of  happiness  and  security 
that  communities  justify  the  taxation  of  pri- 
vate property  for  the  support  of  public 
schools.  Hence  the  community  has  a  right 
to  those  returns.  The  right  is  precisely  the 
same  in  the  case  of  private  schools,  which 
are  supported  by  voluntary  taxation. 
F 


82  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 


RIGHTS  OF  PARENTS. 

THE  parents  have  a  right — 1st,  to  feel  that 
their  children  are  managed  with  thoughtful 
kindness  and^care  with  reference  to  their 
physical,  moral,  and  mental  well-being;  2d, 
to  the  gratification  of  beholding  the  devel- 
oped powers  and  possibilities  of  their  chil- 
dren; 3d,  to  the  assurance  that  their  chil- 
dren are  prepared  for  correct  and  success- 
ful lives. 

The  first  and  third  rights  embrace  the 
scope  of  parental  responsibility.  These  are 
the  things  due  to  the  child  from  the  par- 
ent, and  the  payment  of  which  is  intrusted 
to  the  promptings  of  affection.  Schools  are 
devised  to  enable  parents  to  pay  their  debts ; 
and  the  parents  have  a  right  to  feel  that  their 
creditors  are  justified,  especially  since  the  cred- 
itors are  of  their  own  flesh  and  blood. 


EIGHTS    OF    PARENTS.  83 

The  second  right  embraces  the  principal 
parental  reward.  "When  parents  do  their 
duty  they  are  entitled  to  their  reward. 
The  school  should  insure  that  reward,  in- 
stead of  intercepting  it. 


84:      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 


EIGHTS  OF  CHILDREN. 

THE  children  have  a  right  —  1st,  to  find 
their  parents'  affection  in  the  teacher's 
chair,  inspiring  their  faith,  hope,  and  perse- 
verance ;  2d,  they  have  a  right  to  sound  in- 
struction and  correct  example ;  3d,  they  have 
a  right  to  that  perfect  and  strong  maturity 
that  comes  of  correct  training. 

1st.  Schools  and  teachers  are  artificial 
contrivances ;  there  are  no  such  existences 
in  the  natural  order  of  things.  Instruction 
is  a  parental  duty.  It  is  founded  upon  the 
affections,  which  secure  to  the  parent  the 
custody  of  the  child. 

Love  considers  the  welfare  of  its  object; 
and  instruction  is  essential  to  the  welfare 
of  the  child.  Many  circumstances  make  it 
expedient  to  procure  this  instruction  through 
schools.  The  teacher,  when  such  a  contri- 


EIGHTS    OF    CHILDREN.  85 

vance  is  devised,  is  simply  a  person  in  loco 
parentis,  vested  with  certain  parental  rela- 
tions for  the  discharge  of  certain  parental 
duties. 

"We  have  said  that  the  one  imperious 
moral  desire  of  the  child  is  the  desire  of 
love.  The  child  has  a  right  to  that  love 
which  it  craves,  and  should  never  be  out 
of  its  atmosphere.  It  is  presumed  that  the 
child  is  ever  within  reach  of  parental  sym- 
pathy and  assistance,  both  at  home  and  at 
school.  Its  duties  to  the  teacher  are  like- 
wise the  same  as  those  to  the  parent — viz., 
obedience,  respect,  and  filial  love.  The  mut- 
ual relations  remain  unchanged. 

2d.  The  susceptibility  to  instruction  and 
example  gives  rise  to  the  right  to  sound  in- 
struction and  correct  example.  The  child 
is  helpless  to  select  wholesome  physical, 
mental,  or  moral  food  ;  hence  the  selection 
is  a  parental  duty. 

Sad,  indeed,  are  the  results  of  failure  to 
read  the  whole  meaning  of  innocent,  help- 


86  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE   FAMILY. 

less,  trusting  childhood !  Infamous  are  the 
customs  that  make  traffic  of  their  rights, 
and  change  them  from  budding  angels  into 
incarnate  fiends! 

3d.  But  towering  above  all  the  specific 
rights  of  childhood,  and  embracing  them 
all  in  its  wide  significance,  is  the  grand 
right  of  maturity  —  the  right  to  the  com- 
plete unfolding  of  its  powers;  the  right  to 
attain  its  end;  the  right  to  be  a  man;  the 
right  to  read  the  Creative  Mind  spread 
abroad  upon  his  works;  the  right  to  the 
infinite  pleasures  that  await  upon  mature 
susceptibilities ;  the  right  to  scatter  happi- 
ness here — the  right  to  retire  in  peace  from 
a  well-employed  mortality! 

This  is  the  meaning  of  childhood  and  its 
rights.  This  is  the  grand  fabric  which  af- 
fection should  build,  but  which  ruthless  in- 
justice is  everywhere  preventing  by  making 
an  early  ruin. 


EIGHTS    OF   TEACHERS.  87 


RIGHT 8   OF  TEACHERS. 

THE  teacher's  contract  gives  him  no  moral 
right.  He  only  acquires  rights  as  he  gets 
himself  into  his  proper  condition.  He  then 
has  a  right — 1st,  to  his  pay ;  2d,  to  the  obe- 
dience, respect,  and  love  of  the  children ;  3d, 
to  the  confidence  and  support  of  the  par- 
ents and  the  community. 

1st.  "  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire." 
The  general  conscience  of  mankind  concedes 
to  the  faithful  laborer  the  right  to  compen- 
sation for  his  services.  But  it  is  on  the 
supposition  that  the  service  has  been  of 
value.  Under  his  contract  the  incompetent 
teacher  may  draw  pay,  but  the  transaction  is 
legalized  fraud.  From  a  moral  standpoint 
it  is  viewed  as  the  plunder  of  a  sacred  fund. 

2d.  Only  when  the  teacher  shows  parental 
spirit  is  he  morally  entitled  to  the  duties  of 


88      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

childhood.  He  may  have  extravagant  no- 
tions of  his  authority,  but  that  authority  is 
none  other  than  the  parental  authority  of 
custody  intrusted  to  the  affections.  Many 
teachers  act  on  the  principle  that  might 
makes  right,  and  employ  physical  force  as 
the  sine  qua  non  of  discipline.  Such  teach- 
ers have  no  rig]  - 1  to  the  duties  of  the  child. 

If  the  teacher  is  not  in  his  proper  condi- 
tion, his  very  presence  is  a  moral  wrong — the 
efficient  cause,  in  fact,  of  the  endless  wrongs 
and  miseries  which  work  the  ruin  of  order 
in  schools. 

A  violation  of  any  of  the  rights  men- 
tioned works  injustice.  It  is  incumbent 
upon  the  argument  to  show  that  this  in- 
justice works  disorder  in  school. 


REACTION   OF   INJUSTICE.  89 


REACTION  OF  INJUSTICE. 

LET,  for  instance,  the  property  be  contin- 
ually damaged  and  destroyed.  This  is  an 
injustice,  inasmuch  as  it  violates  the  first 
right  of  the  district.  It  will  immediately 
react  upon  one  of  the  conditions  of  order — 
viz.,  willingness  to  contribute  freely  to  the 
necessary  expenses  of  the  school. 

Dilapidation  is  not  always  due  to  penu- 
riousness.  It  may  be  evidence  of  a  dis- 
couraged district  that  has  witnessed  wanton 
waste  and  destruction.  It  becomes  an  ap- 
parently useless  task  to  make  improvements, 
if  improvements  are  only  to  whet  the  ap- 
petite of  vandalism;  so  dilapidation  is  per- 
mitted to  have  its  course.  Good  dwellings, 
fences,  barns,  and  churches  go  up,  while 
the  school-house  goes  down.  It  is  not  un- 
common to  see  very  shabby  school -houses 


90      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

in  very  enterprising  and  well-to-do  commu- 
nities. It  would  be  wrong  to  infer  penuri- 
ousness  or  want  of  public  spirit  in  a  people 
who  are  unwilling  to  submit  to  injustice. 

Dilapidation  is  destructive  of  order;  in- 
justice may  have  caused  the  dilapidation; 
and  the  teacher  is  responsible  for  the  in- 
justice. It  is  the  function  of  discipline  to 
get  the  school  in  order;  and  children  who 
are  in  order  will  not  destroy  property. 

The  community  which  some  might  call 
stingy  has  suffered  other  injustice  besides 
waste  of  school  property  —  it  has  suffered 
the  loss  of  teachers'  salaries.  The  returns 
to  which  it  was  entitled,  in  the  forms  of 
happiness,  security,  and  enhanced  value  of 
property,  have  not  been  forthcoming,  but 
rather  their  opposite  evils.  Unwillingness 
to  be  taxed  under  such  circumstances  is 
natural. 

Unkind  and  violent  treatment  is  an  in- 
justice, since  it  violates  several  rights.  It 
violates  the  first  right  of  the  children  and 


REACTION   OF   INJUSTICE.  91 

the  first  right  of  the  parents.  It  affects  all 
the  children's  conditions  of  order  and  also 
the  third  condition  of  the  parents.  Chil- 
dren cannot  be  happy  under  nnkind  and 
violent  treatment,  they  cannot  respect  and 
love  a  harsh  teacher,  nor  can  they  feel  an 
interest  in  a  school  that  is  suggestive  of 
torture.  They  may  give  partial  obedience, 
but  it  is  not  given  to  discipline — it  is  given 
to  their  own  physical  fear,  which  for  the 
moment  becomes  the  superior  motive.  The 
inclination  to  disobedience  is  increased. 

Loose  conduct  in  the  teacher  is  an  in- 
justice. It  violates  the  second  right  of  the 
children,  the  first  right  of  the  parents,  and 
the  second  right  of  the  district.  Loose  con- 
duct includes  everything  that  is  not  honor- 
able, manly,  and  noble  in  daily  walk  and 
conversation.  It  includes  every  phase  of 
grossness  and  impropriety. 

If  this  appears  exacting,  it  is  true,  then, 
that  teaching  is  a  very  exacting  profession. 
He  who  regards  good  conduct  as  a  strait- 


92  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 

jacket  would  do  well  to  omit  teaching.  The 
teacher  should  be  everywhere  the  rallying- 
point  for  propriety,  which  is  the  essence  of 
order.  We  do  not  use  the  term  propriety  in 
the  sense  of  stilted  formality.  Naturalness 
is  the  most  pleasing  of  all  things;  and  the 
conduct  which  springs  from  a  pure  heart 
and  reasonable  seriousness  of  purpose  will 
constitute  a  wholesome  example  for  the 
children.  Manners  will  take  their  com- 
plexion from  the  heart.  A  man  who  is  free 
from  gross  intentions  will  not  indulge  in 
gross  deportment.  Delicacy  is  inseparable 
from  goodness — it  is  to  a  degree  inborn  in 
all  human  beings.  We  should  aim  to  culti- 
vate a  natural  grace  rather  than  teach  how 
to  talk,  wralk,  and  behave  by  rule.  Mere 
book  -  behavior  is  a  heartless  thing ;  it  is 
often  cultivated  at  the  expense  of  soul,  and 
destroys  that  frank  and  open  candor  which 
is  the  mark  of  true  manliness. 

A  knowledge  of  the  conventionalities  of 
society  is  useful  in  putting  a  man  at  ease  in 


REACTION   OF    INJUSTICE.  93 

different  situations.  But  those  convention- 
alities are  no  test  of  conduct.  A  man  may 
be  ignorant  of  them,  and  yet  live  without 
reproach. 

It  is  a  mistaken  supposition  that  good  con- 
duct interferes  with  pleasure.  The  teacher 
should  be  supremely  happy,  and  should  take 
all  the  relaxation  and  recreation  necessary 
to  make  him  so.  In  fact,  he  is  not  master 
of  himself  unless  the  red  blood  of  health 
mantles  in  his  cheek,  and  the  light  of  a 
buoyant  spirit  sparkles  in  his  eye.  He 
should  never  cast  a  shadow,  but  should  ever 
carry  with  him  the  warmth  of  a  genial  nat- 
ure. He  must  unbend  at  times,  or  he  will 
become  permanently  rigid.  While  providing 
for  his  own  relaxations,  he  should  encourage 
the  relaxations  of  others,  and  so  contribute 
to  the  general  happiness.  In  holding  that 
he  should  be  the  rallying-point  of  propriety, 
we  do  not  mean  that  he  should  appear  as 
an  iceberg  to  put  out  the  fires  of  enjoy- 
ment. 


94      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

The  hypochondriac  is  out  of  place  in  the 
school-room.  The  teacher  would  do  well  to 
consult  his  glass,  and  when  he  sees  the 
pallor  attacking  his  cheeks  and  heaviness 
seizing  upon  his  eyes,  surrender  his  school 
and  betake  himself  to  the  mountains.  He 
has  had  all  the  needed  evidence  that  he  is 
no  longer  fit  to  govern.  An  act  or  trait 
good  in  itself  may  be  pushed  to  excess.  A 
few  teachers  are  what  may  be  called  om- 
nivorous students.  They  oscillate  between 
the  study  and  the  school-room,  keeping  their 
mental  powers  under  continual  strain.  The 
result  is  general  exhaustion,  a  shattered  ner- 
vous system,  and  total  unfitness  to  govern. 

But  while  good  conduct  does  not  pre- 
clude pleasure,  it  does  preclude  rude  man- 
ners and  the  offensive  habits  resulting  from 
low  instincts. 

Loose  conduct,  like  every  other  injustice, 
reacts  upon  the  conditions  of  order.  It 
shakes  the  respect  of  the  children  for  the 
moral  superiority  of  the  teacher;  it  dimin- 


EEACTION   OF    INJUSTICE.  95 

islies  the  confidence  of  the  parents,  affects 
the  willingness  of  the  district,  and  lowers 
the  tone  of  public  sentiment,  making  in  the 
aggregate  such  an  onslaught  upon  order  as 
no  other  qualities  can  counteract. 

Ignorance  and  intellectual  idleness  in  the 
teacher  are  rank  injustice  to  the  children, 
the  parents,  and  the  district.  They  violate 
every  right  of  all  the  other  factors  by  mak- 
ing the  school  a  sham  and  a  pretence.  The 
mind  that  is  not  open  for  the  reception  of 
instruction  is  not  the  fit  vehicle  for  impart- 
ing it.  The  child  is  "the  heir  of  all  the 
ages  in  the  foremost  files  of  time,"  and  the 
opaque  teacher  steps  between  him  and  his 
birthright.  The  teacher,  who  should  trans- 
mit the  inheritance,  makes  the  inheritance 
an  impossibility. 

Nature,  with  her  thousand  voices,  is  wait- 
ing to  instruct  the  recipient  teacher,  offer^ 
ing  him  free  lectures,  free  text-books,  free 
cabinet,  and  free  apparatus.  The  scientists, 
the  poets,  the  historians  of  thirty  centuries, 


96      THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

are  ready  to  pour  out  to  him  the  wealth  of 
their  discoveries;  and  yet  with  sublime  com- 
posure he  ignores  all  these  avenues  of  wis- 
dom, and  assumes  to  keep  school  on  a  knack 
which  he  has  picked  up  from  the  external 
manifestations  of  others.  The  farce  would 
be  ludicrous  were  it  not  for  its  ghastly  con- 
sequences. 

But  our  immediate  point  is  the  reaction 
of  ignorance  upon  order.  It  reacts  upon 
happiness,  respect,  confidence,  and  willing- 
ness. The  very  conscientiousness  of  an  ig- 
norant teacher  makes  him  only  the  greater 
infliction  on  the  school.  Starting  with 
wrong  methods,  the  more  he  pushes  them, 
the  more  damage  he  does.  Confusion  be- 
comes worse  confounded,  until  recovery  is 
almost  hopeless.  It  would  be  a  good  thing 
for  the  cause  of  education,  the  welfare  of 
the  country,  and  the  pockets  of  taxpayers 
if  people  could  realize  how  much  better  no 
school  at  all  is  than  such  a  school. 

Dulness   of  apprehension    of  relations  in 


REACTION    OF    INJUSTICE.  97 

the  teacher  is  an  injustice.  It  violates  the 
third  right  of  the  children.  The  teacher 
may  be  thoroughly  upright  and  well-be- 
haved, he  may  be  scholarly  and  studious ; 
but  if  he  is  wanting  in  apprehension,  he  will 
inflict,  though  unintentionally,  the  greatest 
injustice,  and  seriously  disturb  order. 

He  will  be  apt  to  reprimand  and  even 
punish  the  children  for  disorder  caused  by 
discomfort.  This  disorder,  instead  of  being 
a  delinquency,  is  a  signal  from  Nature  that 
the  conditions  of  health  and  happiness  are 
wanting.  The  wise  teacher  rejoices  in  the 
signal,  and  promptly  obeys  its  behests.  It 
may  apprise  him  that  the  air  is  foul,  and 
that  the  children  are  in  danger  of  being 
poisoned.  It  may  apprise  him  that  the 
children  are  suffering  from  cold,  perhaps  sit- 
ting in  damp  garments,  thus  having  their 
health  dangerously  exposed.  It  may  apprise 
him  that  the  seats  and  desks  are  so  con- 
structed as  to  cause  present  discomfort  and 
permanent  injury  to  the  bodily  frame.  It 
G 


98  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

may  apprise  him  that  the  light  is  not  prop- 
erly distributed,  and  that  the  cause  of  the 
children's  discomfort  threatens  danger  to 
their  eyesight.  Many  graves  and  many  bro- 
ken and  deformed  bodies  are  the  work  of 
the  kindest,  best -behaved,  and,  it  may  also 
be  said,  of  the  most  scholarly  and  studious 
teachers. 

Apprehension  of  relations  will  enable  the 
teacher  to  administer  correction  with  dis- 
crimination, and  prevent  him  from  fixing 
responsibility  where  it  does  not  belong. 

Apprehension  will  inform  the  teacher  when 
the  mental  strain  is  sufficient,  and  when  the 
young  brain  needs  rest  and  relaxation ;  oth- 
erwise, with  the  kindest  of  motives,  he  may 
murder  the  child,  and  be  a  too  successful 
instructor. 

It  is  clear  that  want  of  apprehension  of 
relations  causes  great  injustice,  suffering, 
and  injury.  But  it  reacts  upon  order  by 
diminishing  happiness  and  by  diminishing 
the  teacher's  outside  influence ;  it  interferes 


REACTION    OF    INJUSTICE.  99 

with  the  pointed  missionary  work  which  is 
part  of  the  task  of  discipline. 

In  like  manner,  every  conceivable  act  of 
injustice  reacts  somewhere  upon  the  condi- 
tions of  order.  It  is  well  that  it  is  so;  it 
is  Nature's  voice  proclaiming  against  injus- 
tice. 

The  function  of  discipline,  then,  is  to  ad- 
minister justice.  When  complete  justice  is 
done,  there  will  be  order.  The  teacher 
should  be  competent  'to  clearly  define  the 
rights  of  all  the  parties  at  issue,  and  ulti- 
mately to  secure  those  rights  to  their  pos- 
sessors in  their  fullest  exercise.  If  he  pro- 
ceeds from  any  other  standpoint  of  action, 
he  will  fail  to  get  his  school  in  order.  If 
he  trusts  to  mechanical  imitation  of  the  ex- 
ternal methods  of  others,  or  to  the  dictates 
of  sudden  impulse,  he  will  fail.  He  can  only 
succeed  by  being  absolutely  just. 

But  rights  and  their  reasons  are  only  part 
of  the  moral  law.  "We  rise  to  a  full  concep- 
tion of  the  great  ethical  system  which  the 


100  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

Creator  has  instituted  for  the  moral  gov- 
ernment of  his  creatures  only  when  we 
grasp  the  idea  of  reciprocity.  Giving  in  re- 
turn for  receiving  is  the  law.  Every  right 
involves  the  obligation  of  payment.  This 
payment  is  called  duty.  Every  moral  gov- 
ernor should  be  clear  not  only  in  the  nature 
of  rights,  biit  also  in  that  of  their  corre- 
sponding duties.  Until  the  sense  of  obli- 
gation is  aroused  in  the  governed,  the  gov- 
ernment will  not  be  successful. 

We  have  said  before  that  perfect  order 
results  from  the  immediate  influence  of  an 
enlightened  conscience.  Conscience  is  a 
lively  sense  of  duty  —  the  internal  court 
which  sits  in  judgment  upon  our  conduct 
and  motives,  enforcing  its  mandates  with  the 
terrors  of  retribution.  The  law  of  retribu- 
tion is  one  of  the  earliest  learned  by  the 
child.  In  its  infant  ignorance  it  violates 
natural  law,  and  pain  and  suffering  are  the 
consequences.  "A  burned  child  dreads  the 
fire."  The  caution  resulting  from  experi- 


REACTION    OF    INJUSTICE.  101 

ence  of  pain  is  but  the  physical  conscience. 
The  sanctions  of  moral  conscience  are  also, 
in  a  sense,  caution  against  suffering  —  tho 
moral  suffering  of  remorse  as  well  as  tho 
physical  suffering  incurred  by  moral  delin- 
quency. 

Discipline  cannot  overlook  the  uses  of  suf- 
fering—  it  is  one  of  the  important  mediate 
forces  employed  before  conscience  assumes 
the  ascendency  and  renders  it  unnecessary. 
But  the  correct  employment  of  suffering  in 
discipline  is  one  of  its  most  delicate  prob- 
lems. It  requires  the  clearest  conviction 
that  suffering  is  the  proper  force  required 
in  the  case.  Then  occur  the  important 
questions  of  the  character  and  amount  of 
suffering  fitted  to  have  the  desired  effect. 
The  line  is  delicately  marked,  on  one  side 
of  which  suffering  serves  as  an  educator  to 
conscience,  and  on  the  other  side  of  which 
it  proves  a  destroyer  of  order.  In  this  deli- 
cate case  the  good  disciplinarian  will  choose 
to  err  on  the  side  of  mercy. 


102  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

Teachers  who  are  not  in  order  often  abuse 
the  force  of  suffering  by  inflicting  unjust  and 
brutal  punishments.  Boards  of  education  in 
some  places  have  found  it  necessary  to  pro- 
tect the  children  from  unjust  violence.  They 
have,  however,  taken  the  wrong  course ;  in- 
stead of  dismissing  the  disorderly  teachers, 
they  have  dismissed  corporal  punishment, 
which  is  equivalent  to  dismissing  discipline 
and  accepting  disorder.  The  act  is  an  admis- 
sion that  the  children's  rights  are  in  danger. 
The  proper  protection  would  be  to  remove 
those  persons  who  endanger  these  rights,  and 
not  to  try  to  remodel  the  Creator's  laws.  Ret- 
ribution is  inseparable  from  evil-doing.  It 
cannot  be  abolished  at  the  option  of  a  gener- 
ous school-board;  its  operation  can  only  be 
delayed,  to  fall,  at  last,  with  more  telling 
and  crushing  force. 

The  duty  involved  in  a  vested  right  em- 
braces— 1st,  a  recognition  of  the  possession ; 
2d,  gratitude  to  the  giver;  3d,  humble  and 
loving  submission  to  the  will  of  benevolent 


REACTION    OF    INJUSTICE.  103 

superiority.  Obedience  is  founded  in  faith; 
and  faith  is  the  fruit  of  evidence  of  kindly 
ability.  Suffering  will  have  its  best  effects 
after  the  children  have  acquired  faith  in  the 
good  intentions  of  the  teacher.  Instead  of  re- 
senting what  under  other  circumstances  would 
appear  unjust  pain,  they  are  filled  with  lively 
remorse  for  the  misdeed  which  caused  it. 

Discipline  consists  in  instruction  in  duty; 
and  to  this  end  all  mediate  forces  will  be  sub- 
ordinated. Duty  means  but  one  thing;  it  is 
a  scientific  reality,  accessible  to  all  who  seek 
after  its  nature.  It  is  the  highest  form  of 
knowledge,  as  it  is  the  most  useful  form  of 
knowledge;  it  is  the  key  to  individual  hap- 
piness and  to  the  happiness  of  mankind  in 
their  necessary  social  relations. 

The  discipline  of  a  school  should  not  be 
intrusted  to  any  one  who  is  not  master  of 
this  important  branch  of  knowledge,  because 
everything  is  involved  in  it.  If  duty  be  made 
the  first  subject  submitted  to  candidates  for 
admission  to  the  profession  of  teaching,  our 


104     THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

schools  will  be  measurably  protected  from  dis- 
order. We  have  trusted  to  tact,  to  our  sor- 
row ;  it  is  time  to  insist  upon  knowledge. 

Some  men  claim  to  govern  by  inspiration ; 
they  have  within  them  an  indescribable  some- 
thing which  they  call  executive  ability,  and 
which  carries  them  at  once  to  the  root  of 
each  problem  that  arises  in  daily  experience. 
Such  men  scorn  to  be  interrogated  upon  the 
particular  details  of  duty ;  they  are  not  given 
to  analysis;  they  know  a  delinquency  by  in- 
tuition; and  by  intuition  they  suppress  it, 
and  make  themselves  masters  of  the  situation. 
If  it  is  true  that  these  men  dive  with  unerr- 
ing instinct  to  the  roots  of  every  problem  in 
school  discipline,  we  can  see  how  a  great  fi- 
nancial gain  would  be  effected  by  getting  a 
few  of  them  to  go  to  "Washington  and  run 
the  nation  by  inspiration. 

But  we  must  confess  our  scepticism  as  to 
this  whole  subject  of  executive  ability,  as  com- 
monly understood.  While  we  believe  that  cer- 
tain men  are  born  with  an  itching  to  com- 


EE ACTION    OF    INJUSTICE.  105 

mand,  yet  we  do  not  believe  that  they  will 
command  well  until  they  know  how.  We 
would  be  inclined  to  discourage  a  candidate 
who  offered  no  assurance  of  his  fitness  to 
govern  but  a  breastful  of  faith  driven  by  a 
forty -horse  power  of  determination.  From 
our  ignorance  of  the  secret  springs  of  execu- 
tive ability,  we  would  have  to  regard  him  as  an 
enthusiastic  Juggernaut,  and  keep  our  children 
out  of  his  way.  We  would  want  a  man  to  be 
in  order,  and  be  able  to  demonstrate  it  under 
a  critical  examination.  We  regard  our  chil- 
dren as  subjects  of  instruction,  not  subjects 
of  experiment ;  and  those  wTho  would  instruct 
must  know  what  they  would  teach. 

We  see  that  the  duties  of  childhood  are  all 
associated  with  its  rights.  When  its  last  and 
greatest  right,  maturity,  is  vested,  its  duties  are* 
not  absolved,  but  increased  in  number  and 
character.  The  parent  still  retains  the  right  to 
the  child's  duty,  though  he  loses  the  custody 
of  his  person.  But  with  the  loss  of  the  right 
of  custody  there  occur  new  classes  of  rights. 


106     THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

The  burden  of  duties  performed  and  ad- 
vancing years  are  making  inroads  upon  pa- 
rental vigor ;  nature  is  beginning  to  call  back 
that  vitality  which  has  served  its  purpose; 
the  weak,  dependent  child  has  become  the 
powerful,  aggressive  man;  there  seems  to 
have  occurred  a  transfer  of  strength,  a  re- 
versal of  relations. 

Now,  the  parent  has  a  right  to  lean  upon 
the  strong  tower  which  his  own  exhaustive 
struggles  have  reared :  as  he  descends  through 
the  stages  of  weakness  and  decay  to  the  grave, 
he  is  entitled  to  a  return  of  that  sympathy 
which  his  own  warm,  manly  heart  bestowed 
upon  childhood's  tribulations.  The  chivalry 
with  which  a  dutiful  child,  after  maturity, 
rushes  to  the  support  and  comfort  of  its 
'parents'  declining  years  has  its  exact  counter- 
part in  that  other  chivalry  with  which  a  true- 
hearted  man  rushes  to  the  rescue  of  his  coun- 
try. Patriotism  is  not  an  unexplained  phe- 
nomenon; it  is  conscience,  sense  of  duty  to 
that  other  parent,  the  state,  which  has  nur- 


REACTION   OF    INJUSTICE.  107 

tured  its  helpless  infancy  with  the  benefi- 
cence of  its  laws. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  parent  by 
proxy,  the  teacher  ?  Is  there  no  debt  of  grat- 
itude, support,  and  sympathy  due  to  him  in 
his  extremity  ?  Is  there  no  dereliction  of 
duty  anywhere  when  he  is  cast  aside,  like  a 
worn-out  horse,  after  his  usefulness  in  the 
school-room  is  ended  ?  Most  assuredly  there 
is.  The  child  whom  he  has  led  by  the  hand 
to  man's  estate  is  in  an  important  sense  his 
child.  His  weakness  should  call  forth  filial 
sympathy ;  he  should  share  in  the  strength 
which  he  has  imparted  to  his  pupils.  The 
state  also  owes  him  a  debt  of  substantial 
gratitude  for  the  strong  pillars  of  citizen- 
ship which  he  has  added  to  its  structure. 

The  correct  and  faithful  disciplinarian 
should  have  no  occasion  to  fear  the  approach 
of  age.  Discipline  will  suffer  an  irremedi- 
able loss  if  he  is  obliged  to  betake  his  pow- 
ers into  other  employments  in  order  to  se- 
cure a  competency  for  his  declining  years. 


108  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

In  return  for  his  useful  labors  society  owes 
him  sympathy  and  comfort.  It  has  not  with- 
in its  borders  more  venerable  or  sacred  monu- 
ments than  those  persons  who  have  given  the 
strength  of  their  maturity  to  the  discipline 
of  schools.  The  moral  hero  who  has  fought 
and  wron  the  great  battle  of  discipline  should 
sink  to  rest  amid  the  benisons  of  his  coun- 
try, and  the  tear  of  affectionate  remembrance 
should  fall  above  his  well-marked  grave. 


SPECIAL    PHASES    OF   DISCIPLINE.  109 


SPECIAL  PHASES  OF  DISCIPLINE. 

WE  have  discussed  the  general  law  of  dis- 
cipline. There  are  phases  of  its  operation  to 
be  noticed  before  closing. 

We  have  in  this  country  systems  of  school 
supervision.  Their  nature  and  functions 
should  be  thoroughly  understood  by  all  in- 
quirers into  the  philosophy  of  school  disci- 
pline. The  schools  of  a  city,  town,  county, 
or  state  are  placed  under  the  direction  of  an 
official  head  called  a  superintendent.  This 
individual  is  supposed  to  be  a  person  of  su- 
perior wisdom  and  experience,  who  can  judge 
of  the  wants  of  the  schools,  and  who  can  by 
his  counsel  and  authority  enforce  improve- 
ment. The  conception  of  supervision  is  a 
wise  one  ;  for  it  enables  a  person  of  superior 
disciplinary  powers  to  extend  his  usefulness 


110  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

over  a  wider  field  without  detriment  to 
order. 

Supervision  simply  creates  a  larger  school ; 
but  it  does  not  alter  the  character  of  its  fac- 
tors or  their  relations.  The  superintendent 
is  still  the  teacher ;  and  he  is  morally  respon- 
sible for  the  discipline  of  all  the  schools  un- 
der his  charge.  Having  pronounced  him  a 
teacher,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  in  regard  to  his 
duties  and  relations  that  they  have  been  dis- 
cussed already  under  their  proper  heads.  But 
there  is  this  peculiarity  about  his  functions: 
he  can  multiply  his  personality  so  as  to  be 
properly  represented  in  places  where  he  is 
unable  to  be  in  person.  The  theory  is  an 
excellent  one,  that  discipline  should  not  be 
at  the  mercy  of  circumstances,  but  rather  un- 
der the  control  of  superior  experience. 

Supervision,  then,  is  the  source,  the  foun- 
tain-head, of  wide-spread  disciplinary  activity. 
Poison  the  source  and  you  pollute  the  entire 
stream.  "When  supervision  proves  false  to  its 
trust,  the  pall  of  death  settles  down  upon  the 


SPECIAL    PHASES    OF  DISCIPLINE.  Ill 

discipline  of  its  field.  It  could  not  be  other- 
wise ;  when  the  guardian  sells  out  his  charge 
for  a  price,  that  charge  must  languish.  We 
have  called  discipline  moral  heroism :  the  his- 
tory of  supervision  in  this  country  has  been 
too  largely  a  history  of  moral  cowardice,  if 
not  moral  perversion. 

This  is  due  to  the  system  of  getting  super- 
vision rather  than  to  the  wilful  perversity  of 
men.  If  the  aim  had  been  to  deprive  the  su- 
perintendent of  his  conscience  and  make  the 
schools  a  laughing-stock,  a  more  ingenious 
system  than  ours  could  not  have  been  devised 
to  that  end.  The  prime  cause  of  the  failure 
of  our  supervision  was  the  original  blunder 
of  connecting  it  with  politics.  A  little  re- 
flection might  have  foreseen  the  evil  fruits 
of  such  a  plan.  Our  early  educational  legis- 
lators were  doubtless  blinded  by  the  force  of 
analogy,  and  by  misconception  of  the  scope  of 
the  doctrine  of  local  self-government  and  the 
sovereign  rights  of  the  people.  Our  laws  de- 
cided that  a  superintendent  of  schools  should 


112  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 

be  chosen  for  certain  areas  by  the  ballots  of 
the  legal  voters. 

This  system,  intended  doubtless  to  conserve 
the  rights  of  the  people,  was  fitted  in  its  nat- 
ure to  trample  down  every  sacred  right  of 
community  as  well  as  of  individuals.  It  will 
be  conceded  that  whatever  affects  the  wel- 
fare of  the  children  affects  the  welfare  of 
the  community,  for  they  are  the  constantly 
on-coming  community.  Now,  it  is  a  fact 
well  established  in  political  experience  that 
the  existence  of  a  political  office  creates  a 
horde  of  office-seekers  \vho  are  willing  to 
hold  any  office  under  the  sun.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  if  medical  practice  and  the 
ministry  of  the  Gospel  were  made  the  func- 
tions of  politically  elected  incumbents,  these 
gentlemen  would  all  run  for  the  office  of  doc- 
tor or  clergyman.  Professional  office-seekers 
are  persons  of  ubiquitous  volition,  and  are 
serenely  indifferent  as  to  the  province  in 
which  their  valuable  services  are  employed, 
providing  it  lias  emoluments. 


SPECIAL    PHASES    OF    DISCIPLINE.       *    113 

Now,  the  effect  of  making  supervision  po- 
litical lias  been  to  make  the  entire  system  of 
schools  under  its  charge  political.  Questions 
of  efficiency  have  been  entirely  superseded 
by  questions  of  patronage,  until  the  great 
aggregation  of  American  free  schools  has 
become  one  grand  system  of  spoils.  The 
politically  elected  superintendent  is  not  per- 
mitted to  select  his  teachers,  even  if  he 
chances  to  be  competent  to  discharge  such  a 
weighty  task.  Where  the  law  makes  a  Her- 
bert Spencer  ineligible,  and  gives  the  office 
to  the  party  who  can  best  manage  the  com- 
binations of  a  caucus  and  a  political  cam- 
paign, the  chances  are  not  in  favor  of  brill- 
iant professional  ability.  But,  be  that  as  it 
may,  he  is  immediately  beset  by  candidates 
for  teaching  who  are  more  anxious  to  ex- 
hibit their  "claims"  than  their  qualifications. 
These  claims  are  in  the  shape  of  "  influence  " 
which  has  either  contributed  to  his  election  or 
is  capable  of  punishing  him  should  he  ever 
again  be  a  candidate  for  public  favor.  Hav- 
II 


114:  THE    SCHOOL  AND    THE    FAMILY. 

ing  secured  his  office,  he  is  considered  very 
ungrateful  if  he  prevents  other  people  from 
getting  their  offices. 

In  this  rush  for  place  it  is  not  to  be  sup- 
posed that  the  public  is  frenzied  with  zeal  to 
instruct  the  rising  youth ;  it  is  frenzied  with 
zeal  to  fill  the  offices  and  draw  the  salaries. 
It  is  a  chase  to  see  who  shall  have  the  privi- 
lege of  spoiling  the  children.  The  air  re- 
sounds with  clamor  for  patronage,  while  the 
poor  children,  whose  rights  are  thus  bartered, 
are  dumb. 

Political  men  with  a  long  line  of  political 
aspirations  like  to  be  "popular."  It  is  pos- 
sible to  be  in  politics  and  at  the  same  time 
be  both  popular  and  honest;  but  not  in  the 
office  of  superintendent  of  schools,  elected 
by  the  people.  The  honest  superintendent 
will  tell  some  candidates  that  they  are  not 
qualified  to  do  good  work  as  teachers.  The 
disappointed  candidates  and  their  relatives 
and  friends  take  umbrage  at  a  man  wrho  will 
not  perjure  himself  in  order  to  accommo- 


SPECIAL    PHASES    OF    DISCIPLINE.  115 

date  them.  Many  such  cases  make  large  in- 
roads upon  his  popularity.  Of  course,  these 
good  people  do  not  want  the  superintendent 
to  perjure  himself ;  but  they  do  want  him  to 
certify  to  their  qualifications,  whether  he  can 
find  them  or  not. 

The  superintendent  sees  that  he  does  his 
duty  at  his  peril;  the  disaffected  control  his 
daily  bread;  he  has  but  one  chance  in  con- 
nection with  duty,  and  that  is  for  a  glorious 
martyrdom.  But  a  man  who  fights  a  hard 
political  campaign  in  order  to  get  this  office 
is  not  quite  ready  for  martyrdom;  he  gen- 
erally has  a  few  other  projects  on  the  tapis 
with  which  martyrdom  would  seriously  in- 
terfere. 

Where  no  awkward  scruples  stand  in  the 
way,  his  course  is  clear :  give  the  people  what 
they  want,  and  be  -popular.  No  one  demands 
duty,  but  crowds  are  demanding  certificates. 
It  is  possible  that  the  incumbent  never  was 
troubled  with  any  scruples,  or,  if  he  was,  that 
he  lost  them  in  the  campaign  which  carried 


116  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 

him  into  office.  In  that  case  he  can  scatter 
certificates  as  thick  as  the  autumn  leaves,  and 
yet  sleep  as  soundly  as  a  new-born  babe. 

This  is  all  very  well  as  a  burlesque ;  but  it 
is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  condition  of  edu- 
cation in  this  country  that  such  things  are 
possible.  We  have  many  brave  superintend- 
ents who  are  trying  to  protect  their  schools 
against  the  tide  of  political  pressure ;  but 
they  are  groaning  in  anguish  under  the 
strain. 

We  find,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  the 
power  of  discipline  is  the  power  of  con- 
science. If  conscience  is  eliminated,  we  have 
Samson  shorn  of  his  locks;  we  have  size  and 
form  minus  power.  Schools  are  perverted 
from  their  purposes  when  they  become  mat- 
ters of  business,  patronage,  and  emoluments. 
Political  schools  surest  n'o  other  idea  than 

oo 

that  of  plunder,  the  basest  of  plunder,  since 
it  fattens  upon  the  rights  of  childhood  and 
the  interests  of  society.  Under  political 
supervision  there  is  great  energy  expended ; 


SPECIAL    PHASES    OF    DISCIPLINE.  117 

but  it  is  not  expended  towards  building  up 
strong  and  virtuous  citizenship ;  it  is  expend- 
ed towards  capturing  the  school  funds. 

Free  schools  were  established  in  this  coun- 
try for  the  purpose  of  preserving  self-govern- 
ment by  training  up  intelligent  patriotism. 
Tinder  political  supervision,  instead  of  breed- 
ing patriots  they  have  been  breeding  vam- 
pires ;  they  have  flooded  the  country  with 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  wrecks.  Still  we 
have  good  people  in  the  country,  or  we  should 
have  immediate  disintegration.  Fortunately 
the  maturity  of  our  children  is  not  altogether 
at  the  mercy  of  political  schools.  We  have 
other  moral  forces  which  tend  to  save  many 
of  them  from  the  corrupting  influence  of 
vicious  discipline. 

Family  discipline  is  still  fighting  against 
the  tide ;  and  many  fortunate  children  get 
their  dominant  moral  characteristics  at  home. 
The  churches  are  everywhere  wielding  a 
mighty  power  in  the  moral  education  of  the 
race ;  and  organized  society,  public  opinion, 


118  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

constrains  many  men  to  honor.  So  if  good 
people  come  up  out  of  political  schools,  it 
may  be  inferred  that  they  do  so  in  spite 
of  the  schools,  and  not  by  reason  of  them. 
But  we  have  other  conserving  forces  which 
need  to  be  noticed.  Political  supervision, 
though  altogether  too  general,  is  fortunately 
not  universal.  We  have  superintendents  who 
are  appointed  by  competent  bodies  of  men 
who  are  responsible  to  their  constituents  for 
the  faithful  discharge  of  their  trust.  The  ad- 
vantages of  this  system  are  obvious.  Re- 
sponsibility makes  men  cautious  in  selecting ; 
and  the  probabilities  are  altogether  in  favor 
of  securing  a  competent  incumbent.  In  se- 
lecting by  universal  ballot,  responsibility  at- 
taches nowhere ;  and  the  force  of  caution  is 
altogether  lost.  The  appointed  superintend- 
ent finds  himself  measurably  at  liberty  to  at- 
tend to  school  questions  rather  than  to  polit- 
ical ones.  He  can  face  successive  elections 
with  comparative  composure,  feeling  that  he 
has  demonstrated  his  usefulness,  and  that  the 


SPECIAL    PHASES    OF   DISCIPLINE.  119 

better  judgment  of  the  appointive  body  will 
sustain  him. 

Kepresentative  deliberative  bodies  are  con- 
strained to  be  judicial  in  their  decisions ;  so 
discipline  is  measurably  protected.  We  use 
the  term  "  measurably  "  because  absolute  pro- 
tection does  not  lie  in  expedients ;  selfishness 
has  been  found  capable  of  penetrating  to  a 
degree  the  strongest  special  safeguards  yet 
devised.  Absolute  protection  lies  only  in  a 
sensitive  popular  conscience.  But  the  fruits 
of  appointive  supervision  have  been  sufficient- 
ly gratifying,  on  the  whole,  to  create  hopes  of 
the  success  of  public  education.  Schools  un- 
der appointive  supervision  have  made  great 
advance  towards  order,  and  to  that  extent 
have  proved  a  beneficent  force  in  the  coun- 
try. Supervision  is  reasonably  untrammelled 
when  it  dares  to  inaugurate  principles  of  ac- 
tion ;  and  this  is  what  our  appointed  superin- 
tendents, as  a  body,  have  done.  Principles 
bear  fruits  of  faith  and  obedience.  In  some 
communities  the  will  of  a  judicious  super- 


120     THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

intendent  has  become  already  almost  abso- 
lute. 

While  considering  the  conserving  forces 
which  have  saved  us  from  the  complete  con- 
sequences of  our  educational  blunders,  it 
would  be  unjust  to  omit  mention  of  the 
private  schools  which  prevail  so  extensively 
throughout  the  land.  These  institutions,  to- 
tally dissevered  from  politics,  and  relying 
upon  efficiency  for  recognition  and  support, 
have  done  a  great  good  work  for  the  coun- 
try in  the  way  of  building  up  scholarship  and 
character. 

But  the  free  school  is  the  boon  of  American 
childhood  and  the  bulwark  of  American  na- 
tionality. It  should  therefore  be  the  aim  of 
the  philanthropist  and  statesman  to  make  it 
efficient.  Efficiency  lies,  1st,  in  having  right 
views  of  discipline ;  2d,  in  having  a  correct 
system  of  organization. 

We  have  considered  political  supervision, 
under  which  King  Caucus  manipulates  his 
patronage,  perverting  the  schools  from  their 


SPECIAL    PHASES    OF   DISCIPLINE.  121 

proper  purposes  to  selfish  uses.  There  is 
another  injurious  phase  of  supervision  to  be 
noticed.  It  is  injurious  in  a  negative  rather 
than  in  a  positive  sense.  We  refer  to  what 
we  may  call  nominal,  or  rather  restricted 
supervision.  Under  this  form  the  superin- 
tendent is  assigned  a  limited  list  of  duties, 
beyond  the  discharge  of  which  his  official  con- 
nection with  the  schools  ceases.  This  places 
the  superintendent  in  an  anomalous  position. 
It  is  a  form  of  educational  paralysis.  It  is 
the  creation  of  a  vigorous  head,  supplied  with 
sensor  but  not  with  motor  nerves.  This  head 
becomes  cognizant  of  things  which  should  be 
done ;  it  has  the  will,  but  not  the  power,  to 
act. 

If  we  hold  the  teacher  responsible  for  the 
discipline  of  his  school,  he  should  certainly 
have  ample  liberty  in  managing  the  details  of 
the  school.  It  is  wrong  to  hold  a  superin- 
tendent responsible  for  evils  which  he  is  for- 
bidden to  check.  We  have  areas  of  nominal 
supervision  within  which  there  are  other  areas 


122  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

of  political  supervision,  constituting  states 
within  a  state,  and  thoroughly  untrammelled 
in  their  license.  Supervision  is  defeated  of 
its  purpose  unless  it  has  the  power  of  exact- 
ing reasonable  uniformity  and  unquestioned 
efficiency. 


CONCLUSION.  123 


CONCLUSION-. 

WE  have  completed  an  examination  of  the 
theory  of  discipline,  and  have  endeavored  to 
trace  its  law.  "With  whatever  of  strength  or 
weakness  this  has  been  done  is  a  question 
for  the  reader  to  decide.  We  shall  be  glad 
if  some  degree  of  truth  is  recognized  in  the 
propositions  laid  down ;  wherein  we  are  in 
error  we  shall  as  gladly  stand  corrected  when 
the  error  is  made  known  to  us.  It  is  alto- 
gether improbable  that  a  single  individual 
may  escape  error  in  pursuing  such  an  intri- 
cate subject ;  but  if  the  method  herein  em- 
ployed prove  suggestive  to  other  explorers, 
this  labor  has  not  been  expended  in  vain. 

The  great  need  is  for  more  general  think- 
ing in  discipline  as  a  subject ;  and  we  be- 
lieve this  end  will  be  hastened  by  formu- 
lating into  a  science  the  truths  discovered 


124:  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

and  demonstrated  by  experience.  Experience 
palls  on  those  who  are  destitute  of  method. 
We  would  institute  a  method  of  progress. 

We  have  been  compelled  to  say  severe 
things,  but  have  endeavored  to  be  just.  No 
one  has  less  reason  than  ourselves  to  speak 
slightingly  of  the  existing  institutions  of  our 
country.  We  would  be  glad  to  be  spared  the 
office  of  censor,  and  so  devote  ourselves  to 
the  more  pleasant  duties  of  philosophy  and 
eulogy ;  but  we  know  it  would  be  wrong  to 
cloak  the  evils  which  every  candid  observer 
must  admit.  The  present  demands  earnest- 
ness and  sincerity.  It  would  be  severe,  but 
true,  to  say  that  during  the  century,  instead 
of  building  up  a  system  of  education,  we 
have  only  called  into  existence  a  vast  aggre- 
gation of  educational  symbols.  Why  ?  Be- 
cause we  have  given  the  building  over  to 
novices  and  charlatans,  and  have  driven  away 
the  constructive  brain  and  the  skilful  hand. 
A  nation's  vitality  may  stand  such  a  strain 
for  a  time ;  but  there  always  is  a  point  at 


CONCLUSION.  125 


which  the  accumulation  of  evils  produces  a 
crash.  When  we  rise  to  criticism,  we  rise 
to  make  a  case  in  behalf  of  the  children,  in 
behalf  of  a  national  citizenship,  and  in  be- 
half of  mankind  against  a  dishonest  and  de- 
structive empiricism. 

Our  reasonings  have  led  us  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  our  teachers  should  be  wise.  We 
want  absolute  evidence  of  that  wisdom  be- 
fore they  be  permitted  to  touch  the  delicate 
structure  of  a  child's  mental  and  moral  nat- 
ure. An  artificer  should  be  acquainted  with 
his  materials,  and  should  have  clear  notions 
of  the  product  he  would  bring  forth.  Is  it 
more  important  to  construct  a  house  or  a 
railroad  than  to  build  a  man  ?  And  yet  how 
cautious  people  are  to  intrust  the  former 
tasks  only  to  competent  talent !  Of  all  the 
improvements  that  can  be  introduced  into  a 
country,  the  most  powerful  and  useful  are 
improved  people.  He  is  the  highest  bene- 
factor who  gives  to  his  country  the  services 
of  a  fully  equipped  man.  We  want  a  guild 


126  THE    SCHOOL   AND    THE    FAMILY. 

of  thought  and  soul  builders,  who  will  take 
the  raw  materials  of  a  child's  possibilities 
and  fashion  them  into  the  fabric  of  a  strong 
and  symmetrical  maturity. 

But  these  are  truisms.  The  specific  point 
is  that  the  teacher  should  be  familiar  with 
natural  philosophy,  human  physiology,  men- 
tal and  moral  science,  as  a  condition  of  dis- 
cipline. He  should  likewise  be  enthusiastic 
in  his  calling,  and  not  gauge  his  labors  by  his 
pay.  If  he  has  the  heart  of  a  true  teacher, 
he  will  be  inspired  by  but  one  motive,  and 
that  is  the  advancement  of  his  pupil.  How 
these  qualifications  may  be  secured  and  as- 
sured we  shall  discuss  under  the  head  of 
Practical  School  Ethics. 


TABULAR   ANALYSIS. 


127 


TABULAR  ANALYSIS. 

DEFINITION.  Discipline  (government).    That  power  of 

control  which  produces  and  sustains 
order. 

DEFINITION.  Order.    Fitness  of  condition  in  things. 

{1.  District. 
2.  Parents. 
3.  Children. 
4.  Teacher. 


C  I.  Ability  to  support. 

'l  District  \  2'  wminSness  to  support. 

'  j  3.  Healthy    public    senti- 

l        ment. 

r  1.  Appreciation  of  knowl- 

edge. 

CONDITIONS  OF 

J  2.  Wisdom  in  family  man- 
3.  Parents.                      nt 

ORDER.             I                     |  3.  Proper  affection  towards 

school. 

{1.  Happiness. 

2.  Respect  for  superiors. 

3.  Interest  in  school. 

rl.  Self-mastery. 

.  4.  Teacher.  \  2.  Sound  scholarship. 

1  3.  Correct  apprehension. 

DEDUCTION.  The  power  of  discipline  is  a  moral  power. 

DEDUCTION.  Discipline  is  a  remedial  system. 

DEDUCTION.  Moral  order  is  the  undisturbed  exercise 

of  rights  and  the  complete  discharge 
of  duties— the  reign  of  justice. 


128 


THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 


CAUSES  OF  DIS- 
ORDER. 

DEFINITION. 


'1.  Parents. 


2.  District. 


PERSONAL  RIGHTS. 


DEDUCTION. 

{(involved 
in  a  vest- 
ed right). 

DEDUCTION. 
DEDUCTION. 


1.  Natural  deformity. 

2.  Neglect. 

3.  Reaction  of  injustice. 

Injustice.    Violation  of  personal  rights. 

1.  Teacher's  kindness  and 

care. 

2.  To  enjoy  the  develop- 

ment of  the  children. 

3.  To  be  assured  of  their 

children's  success. 

1.  Preservation    of  prop- 

erty. 

2.  Improved  public  senti- 

ment. 

3.  Enhanced  value  of  prop- 

erty. 

1.  Parental  kindness  and 

care. 

2.  Sound  instruction  and 

correct  example. 

3.  Maturity. 

1.  Pay. 

2.  Respect,  obedience,  and 

filial  love. 

3.  Confidence  and   co-op- 
L        eration. 

Rights  and  duties  are  correlates. 

•]  1.  Recognition  of  the  possession. 

1 2.  Gratitude  to  the  giver. 

J  3.  Submission  to  benevolent  superiority. 

The  production  of  order  is  the  education 
of  conscience. 

The  education  of  conscience  involves  the 
employment  of  mediate  forces.  A  me- 
diate force  is  a  special  restraint  upon  a 
diseased  will,  and  is  discontinued  as 
conscience  assumes  control  of  the  will. 


3.  Children. 


I 


4.  Teacher 
(condition- 1 
al). 


TABULAR   ANALYSIS.  129 


POSTULATE.  Retribution  is  the  inseparable  consequent 

of  violated  law. 

DEDUCTION.  The  education  of  conscience  involves  ex- 

perience of  retribution;  hence  disci- 
pline employs  suffering  as  a  mediate 
force. 

POSTULATE.  Retribution  is  the  complement  of  aspira- 

tion ;  it  is  the  compulsion  of  nature  to 
right  living — that  is,  to  the  diligent  ex- 
ercise of  the  various  human  faculties. 

DEDUCTION.  Subordination  to  justly  constituted  au- 

thorities is  a  natural  state  of  man. 


1.  Conflict  of  authority. 

2.  Abuse     "         " 
INSUBORDINATION.  (  a  Abdication  of  „ 


CAUSES  OF       j  \  %££ 
~~N'(3.. 


DEDUCTION.  Selfishness  is  subversive  of  discipline; 

intuition  is  inadequate  to  its  delicate 
decisions  ;  actual  knowledge  of  natural 
law  is  the  essential  condition  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  discipline. 


130  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 


PRACTICAL  SCHOOL  ETHICS. 

UNDER  this  head  we  open  a  department  for 
the  unlimited  discussion  of  practical  school 
problems.  It  should  be  the  exemplification 
of  the  science  of  school  discipline  ;  and  it  can 
be  made  the  test  of  any  system  assuming  sci- 
entific completeness.  Practical  ethics  will  be 
established  on  a  proper  basis  only  after  we 
have  an  authentic  and  accepted  science  of  dis- 
cipline. It  ought,  then,  to  give  us  an  excep- 
tionally rich  educational  literature,  coming  up 
from  the  practical  workers  in  their  varied 
fields  of  experience.  But  all  contributions  to 
practical  ethics  should  be  to  the  point ;  they 
should  either  enrich  our  science  (after  we  get 
it)  or  illustrate  it.  We  should  conserve  dis- 
cussion to  really  new  thoughts  (the  science 
will  take  care  of  the  old  ones).  By  so  doing 
all  educational  thinkers  may  feed  on  real  dis- 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  131 

coveries,  and  keep  together  in  the  line  of  edu- 
cational progress.  We  have  no  time  to  listen 
to  vaporing ;  nor  have  we  time  to  listen  to  an 
individual's  experience  unless  he  is  quite  sure 
that  it  is  not  the  common  experience  of  the 
profession.  Of  all  weariness,  the  most  excru- 
ciating is  that  resulting  from  listening  to  the 
labored  presentation  of  an  oft-told  tale. 

A  profession  is  not  built  up  by  rhetoric, 
by  plodding  empiricism,  nor  by  dogmatic  as- 
sertion ;  it  is  built  up  only  by  careful  toil 
within  prescribed  limits.  The  professional 
talk  which  embodies  only  what  has  been  well 
said  before  is  a  double  infliction,  because,  in 
addition  to  disgusting  the  auditors,  it  also 
takes  time  from  progress. 

The  most  general  educational  problem  of 
the  hour  is  that  of  providing  a  citizenship 
fitted  to  enjoy  the  institutions  of  free  govern- 
ment, and  fitted  to  develop  the  boundless  re- 
sources of  the  American  domain.  To  do  this, 
education  has  not  only  to  train  up  American 
childhood  to  fitness  for  its  royal  prerogatives, 


132  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 

but  it  has  also  to  assimilate  into  sturdy  citi- 
zenship the  heterogeneous  elements  pouring 
in  upon  us  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe ;  it 
has  the  task  of  making  patriots  out  of  stran- 
gers. It  has  the  task  of  uprooting  habits  of 
thought  fastened  by  older  civilizations,  and  of 
giving  free  and  universal  scope  to  the  Amer- 
ican idea. 

This  American  idea  contemplates  a  brother- 
hood of  citizens  having  common  political  aspi- 
rations undisturbed  by  phases  of  private  opin- 
ion and  belief.  It  means  the  enthronement 
of  order,  freedom,  and  progress.  It  means  to 
show  that  mankind  can  attain  its  majority  and 
dispense  with  the  paternal  nursings  that  have 
been  practised  upon  its  infancy.  It  means 
the  creation  of  a  public  opinion  powerful 
enough  to  crush  all  fraud  and  political  heresy 
here,  and  capable  of  instructing  other  nations 
in  the  pathways  of  political  freedom  and 
progress.  The  American  idea  is  generous  in 
its  intentions  and  broad  in  its  purposes. 
Whether  it  shall  be  permitted  to  pass  into 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  133 

history  as  a  mere  fanciful  conception  or  as  a 
powerful  reality  is  the  problem  of  American 
education. 

It  has  certainly  suffered  hitherto;  the  many 
triumphs  of  selfishness  have  put  us  sadly  out 
of  countenance.  But  if  we  begin  in  earnest 
now,  we  still  have  the  resources  of  victory. 
Nothing  but  a  strong-handed  education  will 
save  the  American  idea,  and  with  it  the 
intended  career  of  the  American  republic. 
We  must  rescue  our  schools  from  the  char- 
latanry and  selfishness  which  have  over- 
whelmed them,  and  restore  them  to  their 
original  purpose  of  nourishing  healthful 
brain  and  soul  for  the  nation.  Nations  have 
been  crushed  by  superior  force,  and  have 
disappeared  in  glory ;  but  the  most  pain- 
ful lessons  of  history  are  those  of  national 
suicide.  Our  example  would  be  the  most 
doleful  of  all,  because  we  have  had  the  best 
opportunities  and  the  best  possessions  to 
throw  away. 

This  strong-handed  education  calls  for  or- 


134:     THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

ganizers,  for  leaders.  Sucli  talent  is  in  the 
country ;  a  portion  of  the  organizing  skill 
expended  in  selfish  or  even  wicked  projects 
would  give  us  a  capital  educational  system. 
Men  of  genius  enter  our  ranks  from  time  to 
time ;  but,  finding  no  field  for  their  abilities, 
they  soon  abandon  us  to  our  charlatanry  and 
seek  growth  in  other  vocations.  Even  they, 
while  with  us,  were  not  good  teachers ;  they 
only  had  the  possibilities  of  good  teachers. 
They  know  that  we  permitted  them  to  use 
us  as  stepping-stones  in  their  own  ambitions 
while  they  gave  us  the  benefit  of  more  or 
less  ingenious  experiments. 

This  strong-handed  education  calls  for  a 
profession.  How  shall  we  get  it  ?  By  want- 
ing it.  Demand  calls  into  existence  a  supply. 
But  what  if  our  professional  standard  should 
exclude  many  who  are  now  officiating  as 
teachers  ?  All  the  better ;  we  wrant  to  get 
rid  of  empirics.  It  will  do  them  no  harm  to 
go  back  to  school,  learn  the  things  we  wish 
them  to  know,  and  come  out  as  rational  and 


PEACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  135 

competent  teachers.  They  must,  of  course,  at- 
tend the  right  schools ;  for  the  longer  they 
stay  in  certain  schools,  the  less  prepared  will 
they  be  to  pass  a  critical  examination.  Schools 
which  do  not  make  them  think  will  leave 
them  in  a  sad  plight  to  approach  a  thinker. 
An  important  point  in  our  practical  ethics  is 
the  injustice  done  to  an  individual  by  permit- 
ting him  to  teach  before  he  is  ready.  We 
thereby  stop  his  growth,  cripple  his  mental 
stature,  and  dwarf  his  maturity.  Where  we 
intend  a  personal  kindness  we  inflict  serious 
injustice.  It  is  important  both  for  the  teach- 
ers and  the  schools  that  such  injustice  should 
cease. 

The  question  of  facilities  for  training  a 
corps  of  teachers  is  a  proper  one  to  be  con- 
sidered under  practical  ethics.  The  facili- 
ties for  obtaining  the  requisite  literary  and 
scientific  knowledge  together  with  mental 
training  are  already  ample.  We  have  many 
institutions  which  give  sound  instruction  and 
proper  mental  exercise.  These  have  a  capac- 


136  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

ity  for  training  all  the  teachers  we  need,  if 
the  candidates  for  teaching  would  only  enter 
them.  But  inasmuch  as  wTe  practically  place 
a  premium  on  ignorance,  these  institutions  are 
abandoned  to  candidates  for  other  vocations. 
No  candidate  for  teaching  can  plead  want 
of  facilities  in  justification  of  his  ignorance. 
The  energy  proper  to  a  teacher  can  readily 
find  facilities  near  at  hand,  if  he  wrishes  to 
avail  himself  of  them. 

But,  in  addition  to  general  culture,  the 
teacher  needs  special  professional  preparation. 
He  needs  instruction  in  the  science  and  art 
of  discipline,  and  in  the  science  and  art  of  in- 
struction. He  needs  training  to  skill  in  hand- 
ling the  complex  problems  of  school  work. 
There  are  fair  facilities  for  meeting  even  this 
want ;  professional  schools  for  teachers  are 
already  somewhat  common  in  the  United 
States.  They  are  doing  good  work,  too,  and 
are  endeavoring  to  impart  that  fitness  wThich 
teachers  should  possess.  But  in  consequence 
of  the  evils  heretofore  mentioned,  the  experi- 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  137 

ence  of  the  normal  schools  in  this  country  has 
been  rather  ludicrous.  They  have  been  creat- 
ing a  supply  for  which  there  is  no  demand. 
The  normal  graduate  finds  that  the  districts 
don't  want  him  ;  he  has  become  too  good  and 
costly  an  article  for  them.  He  finds  the  mar- 
ket glutted  with  parties  holding  certificates 
of  fitness,  and  discovers  that  his  chances  to 
teach  would  have  been  greatly  improved  had 
he  never  attended  "the  normal."  The  badge 
of  knighthood  conferred  by  the  superintend- 
ent politician  demolishes  the  diploma  of  the 
professional  graduate ;  four  years'  hard  labor 
is  beaten  by  an  "  interview ;"  incompetence 
has  possession,  and  merit  must  seek  its  bread 
elsewhere.  Appointive  supervision  is  saving 
a  fragment  of  normal  material  to  the  profes- 
sion ;  but  the  majority  of  it  is  driven  away. 
Normal  schools  will  scarcely  have  a  vocation 
until  a  professional  diploma  is  made  the  only 
legal  evidence  of  fitness  to  teach.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  disadvantages  with  which  nor- 
mal graduates  have  to  contend,  the  ruinous 


138  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

competition  they  have  to  encounter,  our  nor- 
mal schools  have  been  obliged  to  descend 
from  their  high  professional  functions  and 
place  a  premium  on  attendance  to  prevent 
entire  desertion.  This  premium  is  in  the 
form  of  academical  or  non-professional  in- 
struction. Students  of  deficient  education 
will  enter  for  the  benefits  of  the  academy, 
making  the  professional  curriculum  a  sec- 
ondary consideration. 

But  normal  schools  are  not  censurable 
for  offering  this  premium  on  attendance. 
It  is  absolutely  necessary,  under  the  present 
state  of  things.  A  strictly  professional  cur- 
riculum would  constitute  inducement  to  very 
few ;  the  schools  would  be  compelled  to 
close  their  doors  for  want  of  employment. 
Medical  schools  are  supported  because  the 
law  will  not  permit  men  to  practise  with- 
out absolutely  obtaining  a  diploma.  Law- 
schools  are  supported  because  the  law  will 
not  permit  men  to  practise  without  virtually 
possessing  a  diploma.  Theological  schools  are 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  139 

supported  because  church  law  requires  diplo- 
mas. Normal  schools  are  neglected  because 
their  diplomas  have  no  particular  legal  or 
moral  significance.  In  the  State  of  Mas- 
sachusetts several  of  the  more  enterprising 
cities  have  been  enabled  to  fill  strictly  pro- 
fessional training-schools  with  students,  in  con- 
sequence of  making  the  diplomas  of  those 
schools  the  requisite  evidences  of  fitness  to 
teach. 

Were  such  requirements  universal,  our  nor- 
mal schools  could  then  repudiate  the  pre- 
mium which  they  are  now  paying,  and  con- 
centrate their  resources  on  strictly  profes- 
sional work.  These  schools  are  not  to  blame 
for  their  own  defects — the  blame  rests  with 
our  laws  and  customs.  It  is  rather  ludicrous 
to  be  compelled  to  pay  in  arithmetic  and 
grammar  for  the  privilege  of  teaching  edu- 
cational science  and  art.  But  the  fact  is 
indicative  of  the  state  of  our  educational 
work.  We  should  have  such  a  demand  for 
educational  science  and  art  as  would  tax 


1-iO  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

our  normal  schools  to  their  utmost  capacity, 
and  call  into  existence  others. 

The  masculine  gender  has  been  employed 
throughout  this  work.  It  is  perhaps  unnec- 
essary to  say  that  this  is  only  a  form  of 
expression  intended  to  include  both  sexes. 
We  have  been  treating  of  human  nature, 
not  particularly  of  masculine  nature.  But 
the  question  of  female  power  in  discipline 
is  a  vital  one  in  practical  ethics.  We  em- 
ploy many  female  teachers,  but  in  practice 
we  discriminate  against  the  sex  as  such. 
This  is,  at  the  same  time,  unjust  and  highly 
impolitic.  If  our  discrimination  is  a  charge 
of  universal  incapacity  in  the  sex,  then  we 
should  not  employ  the  sex  at  all ;  we  can- 
not afford  to  use  incapacity  in  any  form. 
But  this  assumption  has  been  repeatedly 
overthrown  by  facts;  some  of  our  most  ca- 
pable disciplinarians  are  females.  Discipline 
does  not  depend  on  sex,  but  on  the  quali- 
ties heretofore  discussed.  Where  these  quai- 
ties  are  found,  they  should  be  recognized 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  141 

and  preferred,  regardless  of  sex.  Indeed,  if 
there  is  to  be  any  discrimination  in  school 
management,  it  should  be  in  favor  of  the 
capable  woman:  with  equal  intellectual  ca- 
pacity, she  is  likely  to  have  the  greater 
moral  resources  of  the  two. 

It  is  true  that  experience  has  discovered 
many  cases  of  female  incapacity — an  utter 
deficiency  of  organizing  power  and  force. 
But  so  long  as  we  aim,  by  our  system  of 
education,  to  keep  our  girls  always  children, 
we  cannot  expect  a  different  experience. 
We  make  boys  men  by  treating  them  as 
men;  by  reminding  them  of  their  possibil- 
ities and  arousing  their  ambition.  "We  dis- 
cuss serious  subjects  with  our  boys,  and  thus 
give  them  mental  gymnastics;  we  avoid  se- 
rious subjects  with  children,  in  which  class 
we  have  practically  placed  the  girls.  The 
result  of  such  a  procedure  is  obvious :  we 
come  to  make  a  distinction  really  on  ma- 
turity, while  we  suppose  it  is  founded  on 
sex.  This  is  the  educational  fallacy  we 


142  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 

would  refute.  It  is  well  known  that  boys 
can  be  kept  young  by  the  same  processes 
employed  with  girls.  Effeminacy  has  come 
to  be  regarded  as  another  term  for  child- 
ishness. We  have  effeminate  men,  who  are 
simply  the  product  of  a  system  which  aimed 
to  keep  them  children,  and  succeeded. 

It  is  known  that  women  mature  after 
they  are  treated  as  adults  —  that  is,  after 
they  are  compelled  by  circumstances  to  as- 
sume responsibilities;  the  clinging  vine  be- 
comes the  self  -  supporting  trunk ;  and  the 
child  develops  the  largest  business  capac- 
ities. It  is  known,  also,  that  woman  does 
not  necessarily  lose  her  loveliness  by  be- 
coming self-centred  and  strong ;  though  shal- 
low observers  would  associate  with  strength 
such  unseemly  qualities  as  mannishness  arid 
hatefulness.  We  have  been  pursuing  the 
error  of  keeping  our  girls  weak  in  order 
to  keep  them  lovely.  Accomplishments  are 
pleasing  when  they  adorn  a  substance;  a 
cornice  without  a  house  is  a  monstrosity. 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  143 

A  weakling  will  not  make  a  disciplinarian; 
if  we  wrould  fit  our  girls  for  teaching,  we 
should  give  them  a  substantial  and  serious 
training.  It  would  be  well  to  assume  that 
all  our  girls  are  to  teach;  for  the  same 
training  that  fits  them  to  be  successful  teach- 
ers would  make  them  excellent  mothers. 

We  have  excluded  from  most  of  our 
strictures  that  portion  of  free  education 
which  chances  to  be  under  the  management 
of  appointive  supervision.  We  have  inti- 
mated that  even  that  portion  suffers  to 
some  extent  from  the  inroads  of  selfishness, 
and  that  it  is  still  a  practical  problem  how 
that  selfishness  may  be  checked.  It  can  be 
most  effectually  checked  by  fixing  by  law 
a  genuine  and  uniform  standard  of  fitness 
to  teach.  Individuals  are  flexible  in  matters 
of  option ;  but  law  is  inflexible  where  it  is 
specific.  There  appears  at  present  no  safer 
criterion  of  fitness  than  the  diplomas  of 
professional  schools.  It  is  the  function  of 
these  institutions  to  study  the  wants  of 


144:  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 

schools  and  supply  those  wants.  But  the 
faculty  should  be  made  impeachable  for  der- 
eliction of  duty.  The  creation  of  a  fraudu- 
lent teacher  should  be  a  crime  punishable 
with  the  severest  penalties.  Legislation  of 
this  character  would  only  be  in  keeping  with 
that  already  enacted  for  the  protection  of 
medical  practice. 

But  appointive  supervision,  in  wThich  we 
take  some  comfort,  is  confined  almost  ex- 
clusively to  cities.  It  becomes,  therefore,  an 
important  point  in  practical  ethics  to  con- 
sider the  consequences  of  regaling  our  rural 
population  with  an  educational  farce.  The 
rural  population  is  the  nation.  Its  condi- 
tion and  characteristics  are  the  condition  and 
characteristics  of  national  life.  Cities  are 
but  special  instrumentalities  for  serving  the 
wants  of  the  rural  population  Cities  are 
not  self-sustaining,  either  in  substance  or  in 
men.  Cities  are  rooted  in  the  country,  and, 
in  return  for  the  conveniences  they  afford, 
they  absorb  and  consume  a  portion  of  the 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  145 

substance  arid  blood  of  the  country.  The 
country  produces  men,  and  cities  wear  them 
out.  Cities  also  feed  upon  the  morals  of 
the  country,  which  is  the  real  source  of  a 
wholesome  public  opinion.  Cities  move  their 
mighty  operations  because  they  always  con- 
tain some  countrymen  who  are  not  yet  worn 
out ;  cities  contain  honor  and  respectability 
mainly  because  they  have  some  countrymen 
who  are  not  yet  altogether  corrupted. 

The  main  significance  of  a  city  is  its  ca- 
pacity for  consuming  physical  and  moral 
stamina.  The  significance  of  the  country  is 
its  capacity  for  producing  physical  and  moral 
stamina.  Many  reasons  could  be  advanced 
in  support  of  these  assertions.  We  will  se- 
lect a  few.  The  country  air  is  pure,  while 
the  city  air  is  poisoned  with  pestiferous  ex- 
halations. The  country  has  pure  water  and 
fresh  food;  the  city's  food  is  stale,  to  say 
the  least,  and  its  water  is  such  as  circum- 
stances and  contrivances  make  it.  The  coun- 
try sleeps  at  night,  while  the  city  runs  riot, 
K 


14:6  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

wearing  out  vitality  and  scattering  the  seeds 
of  vice.  The  country  has  youth,  while  the 
city  has  "  juveniles."  The  country,  then,  has 
the  materials  for  stalwart  men — viz.,  phys- 
ical soundness  and  moral  health.  But  it  has 
not  only  the  materials,  but  also  the  condi- 
tions, for  large  manhood.  Country  labor 
is  largely  physical,  and  so  contributes  to 
sound  rest,  instead  of  impairing  it.  Much 
of  this  labor  is  needed  exercise;  shattered 
constitutions  have  been  restored  by  engag- 
ing in  it.  The  enterprise  of  the  country 
is  based  on  the  simpler  laws  of  nature, 
and  on  accurate  predictions ;  so  the  men- 
tal problems  are  few,  and  consequently  the 
mental  wear  and  tear  small.  The  coun- 
try incites  to  honesty  and  character.  In  a 
measure,  they  are  inbred.  They  are  also 
enforced  by  the  circumstances  of  the  situa- 
tion. In  the  country  the  family  institution 
prevails  in  its  purest  form ;  children  are 
born  into  the  patriarchal  system,  and  asso- 
ciate mostly  during  early  life  with  father, 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  147 

mother,  sisters,  and  brothers.  They  are  con- 
strained by  the  ties  of  nature  to  be  true 
and  loyal  to  these  associates,  and  are  under 
the  moulding  influence  of  honest  parentage. 
The  result  is  a  rural  conscience,  which  is 
sharply  contrasted  with  city  caution ;  the 
one  is  the  monition  of  the  heart,  the  other 
the  monition  of  the  head ;  the  one  is  the 
motive  of  personal  dignity,  the  other  the 
motive  of  personal  safety;  the  one  is  an  in- 
ternal, the  other  an  external  motive ;  the  one 
is  a  tribute  to  individual  strength,  the  other 
a  compliment  to  the  force  of  social  organi- 
zation ;  the  one  is  a  respect  for  right,  the 
other  a  respect  for  comfort  and  convenience. 
Furthermore,  rural  transactions  are  per- 
sonal; it  is  more  difficult  to  wrong  those 
we  know,  and  wTith  whom  we  must  mingle 
in  daily  association,  than  those  who  have 
but  a  mythical  existence  on  paper.  So  ed- 
ucation, habit,  circumstance,  contribute  to 
moral  life  and  growth  in  the  country.  •  Nor 
will  it  be  far-fetched  to  assert  that  Mother 


148  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 

Nature  warms  the  heart  to  just  and  noble 
purposes.  We  have  enumerated  some  ex- 
cellent moral  forces  in  the  country.  They 
need  but  to  be  supplemented  with  sound  in- 
struction, whereby  the  eyes  of  thought  may 
be  opened  and  the  soul  aroused  to  a  reali- 
zation of  its  possibilities.  With  this  want 
provided,  the  country  becomes  the  grand 
producing  -  ground  of  manhood  and  public 
opinion. 

In  consequence  of  this  want,  there  is  a 
constant  exodus  from  the  country  of  fam- 
ilies who  wish  to  place  their  children  within 
reach  of  intellectual  advantages.  This  in- 
volves a  double  calamity ;  for  the  children 
who  go  to  cities  to  be  instructed  get  their 
knowledge  at  the  expense  of  moral  loss,  while 
the  country  suffers  in  tone  by  the  loss  of  its 
better  elements  and  by  the  influx  of  inferior 
classes.  This  exodus  of  families,  and  also  of 
brilliant  youths,  drawn  to  the  dazzling  op- 
portunities of  cities,  leads  many  to  suppose 
that  knowledge  and  culture  are  incompatible 


PEACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  149 

with  rural  life  and  pursuits.  But  the  as- 
sumption is  not  true.  It  is  not  vocation 
that  distributes  men,  but  rather  congeniality 
of  ideals.  If  we  aim  to  fasten  upon  the 
country  population  a  totally  uninspired  ex- 
istence, we  must  expect  the  more  sensitive 
souls  to  flee  away  from  it.  Human  nature 
cannot  endure  isolation ;  man  must  mingle 
with  his  kind,  or  be  unhappy. 

Eural  pursuits,  as  such,  are  not  distasteful 
to  scholarship.  They  are,  on  the  contrary, 
the  preferred  employments  of  some  of  our 
most  cultured  men.  We  can  fortunately 
point  to  some  college  farmers.  Agriculture 
thrives  when  science  strikes  the  fields;  we 
have  then  improved  products,  increased  pro- 
duction, and  organized  thought.  Our  agri- 
cultural societies  are  evidences  that  some 
brain  has  forced  its  way  into  the  domain 
.of  production ;  and  the  proceedings  of  those 
societies  have  evinced  the  deepest  learning 
applied  to  the  most  practical  things.  Our 
scholar-farmers  are  lifting  agriculture  out  of 


150     THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

a  retrogressive  and  wasteful  empiricism  into 
a  broad  science ;  and  where  is  the  man  who 
is  too  large  to  treat  the  subject  of  agricultural 
science  ?  The  scientific  farmer  is  the  largest 
and  wisest  man  in  the  nation,  because  all 
social  problems  have  their  roots  in  his;  his 
line  of  thought  and  interest  commands  the 
whole  domain  of  social  activity ;  he  has  the 
only  training  for  the  ideal  statesman. 

We  expect  to  sec  our  new-born  agricult- 
ural societies  dealing  ere  long  with  this 
problem  of  education  ;  for  it  is  an  agricult- 
ural problem.  It  will  be  apparent  that  the 
rural  districts  will  be  profited  as  much  by 
improved  men  and  women  as  by  improved 
cattle,  soils,  and  cereals.  Empirical  farming 
curtails  production  and  exhausts  the  lands 
it  operates  upon ;  science  reaps  its  golden 
stores,  and  leaves  the  ground  fatter  for  fut- 
ure production.  Mere  muscle  has  had  its 
day;  we  have  learned  the  uses  of  an  intelli- 
gent soldiery;  we  will  learn  the  uses  of  an 
intelligent  yeorritoty. 


PRACTICAL    SCHOOL    ETHICS.  151 

We  need,  perhaps,  but  recapitulate  that 
every  consideration  of  national  welfare,  as 
well  as  every  consideration  of  right  and  jus- 
tice, impels  us  to  carry  the  torch  of  instruc- 
tion into  the  rural  districts.  Instead  of  a 
system  of  make-believes,  propagating  imbe- 
cility, let  us  have  a  system  of  schools  that 
will  take  hold  of  the  children  and  strength- 
en the  fibres  of  their  threefold  nature — physi- 
cal, intellectual,  and  moral.  Let  us  have  a 
system  that  begins  to  make  maturity  by  first 
knowing  what  maturity  is.  Let  us  erect  such 
safeguards  around  the  vocation  of  teaching 
that  educational  quackery  in  this  country  will 
be  impossible. 


152  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 


FAMILY  PROBLEMS. 

WE  have  discussed  some  of  the  ethics  of 
the  community.  We  pass  to  other  classes  of 
problems  more  restricted,  perhaps,  though  not 
less  weighty,  nor  less  important.  Blessed  are 
the  wise  parents.  In  nothing  do  the  beauty 
and  wisdom  of  divine  purpose  shine  out 
more  clearly  than  in  the  family  relation. 
The  family  is  not  only  society  in  miniature ; 
it  is  also  an  epitome  of  all  the  problems  of 
society.  Men  aspire  to  wealth  and  influ- 
ence ;  he  who  has  a  family  possesses  both. 
The  Roman  matron,  when  asked  to  display 
her  jewels,  led  forward  two  glorious  boys. 
Her  sense  of  affluence  was  not  affected  by 
the  absence  of  horses,  dogs,  lands,  and  trin- 
kets. Her  gallery,  however,  contained  the 
richest  of  earthly  treasures  —  living  statuary 
and  breathing  pictures :  she  held  two  bright 


FAMILY   PROBLEMS.  153 

and  loving  souls  who  honored  and  cherished 
the  mother  that  nourished  them.  No  won- 
der that  her  bosom  heaved  with  the  sense 
of  great  possession ;  she  led  by  the  hand 
Koine's  freedom  and  the  liberties  of  man- 
kind. Cornelia  and  her  bright -eyed  boys 
are  moving  the  world  to-day  after  the  lapse 
of  two  thousand  years;  the  trinkets  of  her 
haughty  neighbors  hang  in  our  museums, 
inviting  speculation  as  to  the  individuals 
for  whom  history  gives  no  sign. 

She  knew  her  wealth,  for  she  knew  the 
toil  and  watchful  solicitude  that  produced  it. 
The  artist  mother  recognized  her  handiwork 
in  every  graceful  movement,  in  every  brill- 
iant conception,  in  every  lofty  sentiment  that 
found  expression  in  her  children.  She  had 
put  them  there.  She  was  but  a  woman,  the 
daughter  of  Africanus ;  yet  she  proved  her- 
self worth  two  sons.  Her  case  illustrates  a 
universal  truth ;  if  parents  choose  to  put  their 
own  souls  into  their  children,  they  can  do  it. 
But  they  ought  to  see  to  it  that  they  have 


154:  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

good  souls  to  put  into  them.  An  energetic 
Dacian  mother  would  doubtless  have  made 
the  Gracchi  successful  hunters;  an  Egyptian 
mother  would  have  prepared  them  to  toil 
submissively  in  the  quarries  all  their  lives,  in 
order  to  furnish  a  tomb  for  a  tyrant  king ;  a 
Spartan  mother  would  have  made  them  val- 
orous thieves ;  but  the  Roman  Cornelia  made 
them  men.  They  were  men  because  she 
wanted  them  to  be  men,  and  because  she 
knew  what  constitutes  manhood,  and  how  it 
is  developed.  She  had  an  ideal,  a  purpose, 
and  a  skill ;  she  was,  in  short,  fitted  for  the 
parental  office.  She  blessed  her  boys  when 
they  bared  their  breasts  against  the  ranks  of 
injustice;  she  thanked  her  lucky  stars  for 
such  boys,  as  she  received  their  mangled 
bodies,  and  closed  their  eyes  in  death.  Her 
boys  had  sentiments,  and  were  true  to  them. 
Death  in  a  cause  is  the  highest  proof  of 
earnestness ;  as  she  buried  her  heroes  she  felt 
that  he  is  but  a  feeble  moralist  who  will  take 
no  risk  in  behalf  of  his  principles. 


FAMILY    PKOBLEMS.  155 

Yes,  a  family  supplies  wealth  and  influ- 
ence— an  influence  of  a  definite  character, 
which  can  be  estimated.  A  parent's  influ- 
ence is  not  precarious,  at  the  mercy  of  rare 
opportunities ;  he  has  possession  of  the  child, 
and  with  it  unlimited  opportunity.  The  par- 
ent can  renew  himself  in  his  child  and  re- 
pair the  blunders  of  his  own  career,  which 
experience  has  made  apparent  to  him.  If 
the  parent  has  external  ambitions,  he  can  ad- 
vance them  by  inspiring  his  child  with  the 
game  purposes ;  and  surely  if  he  wishes  to 
influence  the  community,  he  cannot  find  a 
more  favorable  point  to  operate  upon  than 
his  child.  His  suggestions  fall  upon  a  friend- 
ly ear ;  he  is  sure  of  carrying  conviction.  If 
a  parent  has  view^s,  he  makes  a  great  mistake 
in  withholding  them  from  his  children. 

But  men  are  intellectually  ambitious,  and 
like  scope  for  their  powers.  There  is  no 
wider  field  for  the  exercise  of  intellectual 
activity  than  that  afforded  by  family  prob- 
lems. He  who  will  condescend  to  study 


156  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

them  will  find  the  most  edifying  exercise 
and  the  most  wide-reaching  science.  A  par- 
ent can  find  his  best  personal  interests  in 
the  line  of  his  duty ;  he  can  find  the  larg- 
est life  in  dealing  out  justice  to  his  child. 
He  is  absolute  monarch  of  an  interesting 
domain  ;  his  government,  when  he  chooses 
to  exercise  it,  gives  scope  for  the  largest 
capacity,  and  is  attended  with  the  most 
gratifying  results. 

Besides  dereliction  of  duty,  a  man  makes 
a  great  mistake  in  stepping  over  the  prob- 
lems of  his  family  to  reach  those  beyond. 
Before  he  attempts  to  govern  the  public, 
he  should  first  be  satisfied  in  his  mind  that 
he  has  been  a  successful  governor  in  his 
own  household.  It  makes  a  large  discount 
on  a  man's  supposed  greatness  to  find  that 
he  is  the  parent  of  wayward  children.  In 
attempting  to  cultivate  distant  fields,  he  has 
let  the  garden  of  his  household  be  overrun 
with  weeds.  He  must  thereafter  ever  face 
the  evidences  of  failure  —  evidences  patent 


FAMILY    PROBLEMS.  157 

not  only  to  himself,  but  to  all  who  know 
the  condition  of  his  domestic  establishment. 
A  wayward  household  is  an  ungoverned 
household,  in  which  government  has  either 
abdicated  its  function,  or  has  been  over- 
thrown by  its  own  rebellious  subjects  in 
consequence  of  its  own  usurpations  of  un- 
constitutional powers.  Here  is  the  rub.  It 
is  folly  to  attempt  the  mastery  of  state  con- 
stitutions until  one  understands  that  consti- 
tution on  which  they  are  modelled. 

As  gravitation  is  the  basis  of  universal 
order  and  law,  so  is  the  bread  -  and  -  butter 
problem  the  basis  of  all  other  family  prob- 
lems. But  this  would  be  a  desolate  and 
dreary  universe  were  all  other  forces  sus- 
pended but  that  of  gravitation.  The  mul- 
tiplied forms  of  beauty,  which  result  from 
the  combination  and  co-operation  of  forces, 
would  give  way  to  a  dread  monotony.  So 
likewise  may  there  be  dread  desolation  in 
the  household  if  the  parent  sees  nothing 
in  his  mission  beyond  the  necessities  of 


158  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

the  table  and  the  wardrobe.  He  has  made 
beauty  possible ;  but  instead  of  securing  it 
he  has  invited  either  the  drear  waste  of  in- 
anity or  the  black  storms  of  satanic  forces. 
In  all  this  we  have  assumed  that  the  par- 
ent has  supplied  the  bread,  which  is  his 
duty  to  do.  Matters  are  brought  to  a 
worse  pass  when  he  so  far  violates  natural 
law  as  to  regard  his  children  as  bread-win- 
ners instead  of  opening  buds.  True,  he 
should  prepare  them  to  be  good  bread-win- 
ners when  they  pass  from  his  jurisdiction; 
but  they  are  not  the  bread-winners  of  his 
household.  But  the  abuses  of  the  bread 
question  are  intensified  when  the  parent 
compels  his  children  to  be  money-makers 
for  their  own  sakes.  That  is  but  an  ac- 
cursed thrift  which  is  acquired  at  the  ex- 
pense of  soul  and  body.  But  the  greatest 
abuse  occurs  when  the  parent  compels  the 
children  to  make  money  for  his  sake.  The 
other  error,  though  serious  in  its  conse- 
quences, carries  with  it  some  extenuation 


FAMILY    PROBLEMS.  159 

in  the  form  of  intended  benevolence.  But 
this  last  is  the  blackest  of  crimes,  and  goes 
farther  than  any  other  one  thing  to  prove 
the  doctrine  of  total  depravity.  Nothing 
could  better  show  the  utter  absence  of 
worthy  sentiments  and  emotions  than  the 
coining  of  one's  own  flesh  and  blood  into 
filthy  lucre. 

The  parent  who  is  awake  sees  a  hundred 
other  problems  besides  that  which  concerns 
the  cupboard  and  the  clothes-press.  He 
sees  before  him  plastic  minds  and  souls,  ca- 
pable of  receiving  any  impression  he  may 
choose  to  make  upon  them,  and  capable 
of  becoming  things  of  beauty  and  joy  for- 
ever. He  considers  how  he  may  awaken 
and  feed  aptitudes ;  he  watches  with  in- 
terest those  which  burst  forth  spontaneous- 
ly, knowing  them  to  be  the  suggestions 
of  nature,  revealing  the  bent  and  qual- 
ities of  soul ;  he  sees  a  thousand  oppor- 
tunities for  impressing  practical  lessons  in 
thought,  feeling,  and  morals.  Happy  the 


160  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

individual  who  can  do  a  good  thing,  and 
say, "  'Twas  thus  my  father  taught  me  to 
act." 

All  children  have  the  common  mission  of 
becoming  mature  men  and  women ;  but  the 
special  mission  of  each  in  life  should  de- 
pend upon  the  preponderance  of  aptitudes. 
It  is  a  parental  problem  to  detect  this  pre- 
ponderance and  know  in  advance  what  the 
child's  mission  is  to  be,  long  before  it  makes 
the  selection.  This  knowledge  will  enable 
the  parent  to  speed  that  mission.  The  se- 
lection should  always  be  made  by  the  child ; 
the  parental  function  is  to  make  a  wise  se- 
lection probable.  Genius  chafes  and  pines 
when  it  is  out  of  its  element;  most  failures 
are  due  to  the  arbitrary  selection  of  voca- 
tions. 

Every  faculty  in  the  human  constitution 
has  beauty  in  its  construction  and  grandeur 
in  its  purpose.  The  parental  problems  are 
coextensive  with  these  faculties,  and  may 
best  be  referred  to  them.  The  problems  of 


FAMILY   PROBLEMS.  161 

duty  are  to  supply  nourishment  to  all  the 
faculties,  and  to  see  that  none  are  perverted 
or  withered  by  disuse. 

There  is  a  very  common  reluctance  on 
the  part  of  parents  towards  entertaining  any 
of  the  family  problems  except  that  of  bread 
and  butter.  There  are  circumstances  which 
render  it  questionable  how  far  even  this  is 
unselfish.  Parents  must  eat,  and  must  there- 
fore have  a  furnished  table  to  which  the  chil- 
dren are  necessarily  admitted.  It  is  doubtless 
true  that  culinary  matters  are  considered,  for 
the  most  part,  from  the  standpoint  of  parental 
appetite.  But  parents  are  under  compulsion 
of  law  and  custom  to  feed  and  clothe  their 
children ;  so  it  remains  an  open  question 
how  far  this  feeding  is  a  thoroughly  benevo- 
lent act.  It  is  certain  that  some  parents  per- 
mit their  children  to  go  hungry  while  they 
gratify  their  own  appetites  at  prodigious  ex- 
pense. 

But  whether  or  not  we  trace  selfishness 
to  the  table,  we  certainly  do  trace  it  to  other 
L 


162     THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

problems  of  the  family.  Many  parents  re- 
gard the  advent  of  children  as  a  calamity 
and  their  presence  an  annoyance.  The  chil- 
dren are  interlopers  who  interfere  with  the 
routine  of  habit,  or  disturb  the  weighty  re- 
flections that  possess  parental  minds.  "When 
the  children  are  good-natured,  they  are  dan- 
dled on  the  knee  as  interesting  toys;  but 
when  they  are  in  trouble,  they  are  bundled 
off  to  the  nursery  or  to  an  infant  school. 
The  fact  that  the  child  is  troubled  is  over- 
looked; the  only  thing  realized  is  that  he 
is  troublesome.  Banishment  is  the  remedy 
for  his  sufferings — banishment  from  the  pa- 
rental bosom  to  the  management  of  a  testy 
nurse  or  nervous  school-teacher.  We  have 
the  common  phenomenon  of  a  parent  en- 
casing himself  in  selfishness  and  keeping 
his  children  at  bay.  It  has  a  suggestion  of 
frost.  The  advances  and  encroachments  of 
childhood  are  little  knockings  at  the  pa- 
rental heart.  Instinct  tells  the  child  that 
that  is  his  place  wherein  he  may  nestle  and 


FAMILY   PKOBLEMS.  163 

be  warmed  by  the  fires  of  affection,  just  as 
the  chicken  knows  by  instinct  that  comfort 
prevails  under  the  parent  wing.  The  warm 
solicitude  and  faithful  parentage  of  the  brute 
creation  put  to  blush,  in  many  cases,  the 
parentage  of  man.  The  sense  of  desolation 
and  suffering  in  a  banished  child  must  be 
horrible  beyond  comparison.  Such  parental 
mistakes  prepare  the  way  for  frightful  re- 
actions. 

Parents  who  wish  to  solve  family  prob- 
lems will  dismiss  entirely  from  mind  the 
idea  that  children  are,  in  any  sense,  en- 
cumbrances. They  will  not  seek  the  so- 
ciety and  applause  of  heartless  flatterers  in 
preference  to  the  society  and  love  of  their 
affectionate  babes.  They  will  not  seek  di- 
version in  companionship  steeped  in  sin, 
while  angels  of  purity  are  waiting  in  their 
own  household  to  cheer  their  hours  and 
teach  them  the  way  to  heaven.  "Out  of 
the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  cometh 
praise ;"  the  parenc  who  starts  in  earnest 


164:  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 

to  instruct  his  child  will  find  himself  the 
most  instructed  of  the  two.  The  little  one 
is  freighted  with  suggestions  from  the  In- 
finite, untarnished  by  the  faults  and  fallacies 
of  the  world ;  and  he  cooes  into  the  parental 
car  the  voice  of  the  Eternal  Father.  The 
parent  will  heed  the  knockings ;  he  will  open 
the  door  of  his  heart  and  let  his  little  dar- 
lings in,  never  again  to  be  separated  from 
his  consciousness  while  life  lasts. 

The  significance  of  the  knockings  is  that 
the  little  ones  would  be  shielded  from  the 
clammy  touches  of  the  world  and  have  a 
strong  bulwark  between  them  and  evil. 
Vice  recruits  its  ranks  from  the  victims  of 
parental  selfishness ;  it  is  powerless  to  reach 
such  children  as  Cato's  daughter  or  Corne- 
lia's sons.  Parental  exclusiveness  is  the  Mo- 
loch of  modern  times ;  parents  are  so  pre- 
occupied with  business  and  social  cares  that 
they  have  no  time  nor  inclination  to  ward 
off  the  many -armed  monster  that  is  reach- 
ing after  the  fresh  and  blooming  children. 


FAMILY   PROBLEMS.  165 

Parents  would  justify  this  exclusiveness 
on  the  ground  that  they  support  institutions 
for  the  instruction  and  training  of  children. 
The  excuse  is  not  valid.  Schools  are  design- 
ed as  supplements  to  parental  effort,  not 
as  substitutes  for  it.  Schools  address  them- 
selves mainly  to  intellect ;  they  do  not  hold 
examinations  in  virtue.  The  culture  of  the 
heart  is  peculiarly  the  work  of  the  home. 
Cornelia  was  not  mistress  of  the  calculus, 
nor  the  German  language ;  but  she  wras  mis- 
tress of  the  soul.  Instead  of  heart-culture  at 
schools,  the  chances  are  altogether  in  favor  of 
finding  evil  associations,  calling  for  renewed 
efforts  on  the  part  of  parents  to  counteract 
them.  The  parent  has  no  right  to  possess 
thoughts,  tastes,  and  purposes  secluded  from 
his  children.  The  child  inherits  all  the  ex- 
perience of  the  parent ;  and  the  latter  should 
hasten  to  put  the  little  one  into  possession. 
A  domestic  Sphinx  or  Sir  Oracle  was  never 
contemplated  by  nature  any  more  than  a  do- 
mestic tyrant.  Professional  men  are  espe- 


166  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

cially  apt  to  withdraw  into  themselves,  in 
consequence  of  the  preoccupation  of  their 
studies,  and  to  lose  the  thread  of  the  fami- 
ly's daily  history.  The  law  of  family  hap- 
piness and  prosperity  is  freedom  of  associa- 
tion. Whatever  checks  this  is  detrimental 
to  all  the  family  problems.  Business  neces- 
sitates a  certain  amount  of  separation  be- 
tween parent  and  child ;  but  the  worst  form 
of  separation  is  that  which  occurs  when  they 
are  together — the  separation  of  souls.  Busi- 
ness is  a  stern  necessity,  connected  with  the 
bread  problem ;  but  it  should  not  be  carried 
home. 

But  in  the  beautiful  order  of  things  one 
parent  is  free  from  business  engagements. 
The  mother  cannot  be  excused  for  becoming 
oblivious  of  her  children.  The  Creator  has 
given  her  warm  affections  and  unlimited  op- 
portunity for  domestic  culture.  She  is  the 
real  parent,  the  home  -  builder.  While  her 
husband  is  wrestling  with  the  bread  problem, 
she  is  especially  responsible  for  the  solution 


FAMILY    PROBLEMS.  167 

of  the  others.  It  is  her  function  to  detect 
the  spiritual  and  intellectual  needs  of  her 
children,  and  to  furnish  the  nourishment 
which  those  needs  require.  She  is  the  gar- 
dener of  the  household,  who  sows  the  seeds 
of  virtue,  waters  its  plants  and  flowers,  and 
uproots  the  little  springing  weeds  of  vice. 
'Tis  she  who  must  arouse  and  nourish  the 
aptitudes;  'tis  she  who  must  inculcate  self- 
restraint  and  subjection  to  just  authority. 
She  has  to  manage  not  only  her  children, 
but  also  her  husband;  she  is  the  inductive 
philosopher  of  the  household,  and  she  has  to 
indoctrinate  her  husband  and  children  with 
the  fruits  of  her  observations.  If  home 
draws  its  members  away  from  competing 
allurements,  the  victory  is  hers.  If  home  is 
enriched  with  the  jewels  of  a  true  nobility, 
the  pride  of  achievement  is  hers. 

It  is,  then,  a  great  privilege  to  be  a  mother. 
Her  office  is  the  most  dignified  and  influen- 
tial on  earth.  The  sort  of  greatness  which 
domineers  a  senate  does  not  compare  either 


168  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 

in  quantity  or  quality  with  the  greatness 
that  successfully  rules  a  family.  As  family 
organization  is  the  model  of  social  organiza- 
tion, so  is  family  statesmanship  the  model  of 
social  statesmanship.  Family  statesmanship 
finds  its  embodiment  in  the  thoughtful,  ju- 
dicious, faithful  mother.  She  is  the  ideal  of 
earthly  excellence,  the  centre  and  source  of 
the  best  social  forces.  If  mothers  are  faith- 
ful to  their  trust,  the  problems  of  school  dis- 
cipline will  be  greatly  simplified.  We  have 
some  modern  Cornelias  who  are  giving  noble 
men  and  women  to  society.  Perhaps  not  all 
who  contemplate  the  massive  unselfishness 
and  generosity  of  Washington  are  conscious 
of  the  extent  to  which  he  was  indebted  for 
his  traits  to  the  training  of  his  mother.  But 
motherhood  is  beginning  to  receive  recogni- 
tion as  a  mighty  power ;  and  in  the  near  fut- 
ure, maternity,  instead  of  paternity,  will  be 
taken  as  the  key  to  a  man's  character.  He 
is  such  as  his  mother  makes  him ;  and  there 
will  cease  to  be  an  analysis  which  does  not 


FAMILY    PROBLEMS.  169 

include  the  mother.  But  the  great  mis- 
sion of  motherhood  affords  no  time  for 
vanity.  Her  problems  are  such  as  to  re- 
quire earnest,  persevering  purpose. 


170  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 


TOUTED  PROBLEMS. 

IF  parents  were  always  in  order,  there 
could  be  no  necessity  for  discussing  the  prob- 
lems of  youth :  children  could  be  referred 
to  their  parents  for  counsel  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  their  ambitions.  But  inasmuch 
as  many  children  are  jostled  aside  by  parent- 
al selfishness,  and  compelled  to  solve  their 
own  problems,  it  becomes  proper  to  make 
them  an  audience.  The  trouble  with  young 
people  is  inexperience.  They  feel  that  they 
have  problems,  but  they  do  not  understand 
them ;  they  engage  in  a  blind  battle  with 
fate.  They  feel  within  themselves  an  in- 
stinct to  do  and  to  be :  it  is  the  divine  pur- 
pose spurring  them  on  to  their  mission. 
They  are  conscious  of  something  around 
them  called  the  world — an  indefinite  some- 
thing—  to  which  they  must  adjust  them- 


YOUTH'S    PROBLEMS.  171 

selves ;  they  have  indistinct  notions  of  growth 
and  a  future;  they  are  totally  ignorant  oi 
law,  but  sanguine  of  success,  and  are  prone 
to  plunge  headlong  across  the  lines  of  rela- 
tions into  numberless  mistakes. 

Wisdom  is  not  the  portion  of  youth ;  that 
comes  only  by  experience.  Since  youth  is 
blind,  its  first  need  is  wise  and  benevolent 
counsel  in  which  it  can  trust  with  implicit 
faith.  It  never  gives  this  faith  to  dogma- 
tism; it  only  yields  it  to  sympathy.  Young 
people  are  prone  to  secretiveness  in  regard 
to  their  personal  purposes.  They  could  not 
make  a  greater  mistake  than  to  nurse  a  soli- 
tary ambition ;  their  prosperity  and  happiness 
would  be  greatly  enhanced  by  discussing 
their  intentions  with  an  older  friend.  But 
youth's  ideals  are  too  sacred  to  be  exposed 
to  any  but  the  most  friendly  eye.  The  best 
test  of  sympathy  and  goodness  is  a  child's 
confidence.  Happy  the  parent  who  has  the 
confidence  of  his  child;  happy  the  child 
whose  parent  can  command  its  confidence. 


172     THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

Happy  the  teacher  who  gets  the  confidence 
of  his  pupil ;  happy  the  pupil  who  finds  a 
teacher  worthy  of  confidence.  The  youth 
who  has  his  own  problems  to  solve  should 
select  his  mentor,  his  pilot,  his  older  self  with 
whom  he  can  hold  most  intimate  communion. 
He  will  thus  have  ballast  and  direction  to 
guard  him  from  disaster.  A  youth  who  is 
without  any  counsel  but  his  own  instincts  is 
in  a  precarious  condition ;  he  is  exposed  to  so 
many  dangers  of  whose  existence  he  is  entire- 
ly unconscious  that  one  cannot  observe  him 
without  trembling.  His  future  may  be  ru- 
ined by  the  accidents  of  an  hour,  all  his 
bright  possibilities  eclipsed  in  the  eternal 
night  of  failure. 

Young  people  are  prone  to  a  remarkable 
fallacy — that  of  eagerness  to  get  rid  of  their 
youth,  as  though  youth  were  a  reproach.  We 
have  not  too  much  youth  at  the  best;  we 
cannot  afford  to  lose  any  portion  of  it.  Ma- 
turity is  conditioned  in  the  uses  of  youth ;  in 
proportion  as  youth  is  destroyed,  maturity 


YOUTH'S  PROBLEMS.  173 

is  impaired.  Those  who  grow  restive  with 
youth,  and  inflate  themselves  into  an  imagi- 
nary manhood,  are  likely  to  possess  but  an  im- 
aginary manhood  while  they  live ;  they  are 
as  dwarfs  disporting  in  giant's  trappings. 
Never,  until  they  become  humble  and  realize 
their  true  dimensions,  will  they  grow  towards 
fitting  the  garments  they  have  selected  for 
their  persons.  It  is  sad  to  see  self -conse- 
quence demanding  the  homage  of  the  crowd 
and  smarting  under  the  crowd's  indifference. 
It  is  sad  to  see  a  youth  embarrassed  by  his 
fancied  size,  and  wincing  under  the  supposed 
gaze  of  thousands  who  do  not  see  him  at  all. 
Young  people  are  doubtless  goaded  on  to 
casting  away  their  youth  by  the  notions  of 
the  knowing  ones.  Good  people,  of  course, 
never  sneer  at  greenness ;  they  consider  it  a 
very  proper  and  beautiful  thing,  its  juices 
giving  rich  promise  of  the  vigorous  fibre 
and  the  ripened  fruit  further  on.  But  the 
corrupt,  who  have  blackened  their  own  nat- 
ures, find  purity  offensive,  and  aim  to  make 


174:  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 

it  dissatisfied  with  itself.  Youth  makes  the 
mistake  of  supposing  that  only  the  know- 
ing ones  are  wise,  and  that  good  people  are 
fogies.  It  hastens  to  smirch  its  own  white- 
ness and  earn  the  badge  of  maturity  by  pro- 
ficiency in  vice.  The  blushing  boy  is  fas- 
cinated by  the  composure  of  the  "  blood," 
while  he  is  exasperated  by  his  taunts ;  he 
hastens  to  be  himself  a  blood  with  loud  cos- 
tume, a  defiant  eye,  an  aggressive  gait,  a  foul 
vocabulary,  loathsome  habits,  and  a  loath- 
some record.  The  boy  escapes  the  specific 
persecution,  it  is  true ;  but  he  escapes  tempo- 
rary annoyances  at  the  expense  of  perdition. 
The  innocence  and  modesty,  which  the  wick- 
ed call  greenness,  are  a  boy's  brightest  pos- 
sessions. They  are  the  characteristics  of  real 
boyhood ;  and  a  real  boy  is  a  pleasing  sight 
— a  boy  who  acknowledges  a  novelty  and 
opens  his  eyes  with  wonder.  There  is  hope 
for  a  boy  who  can  be  surprised.  Growth  is 
pleasing,  but  precocity  is  offensive,  especially 
the  precocity  of  evil:  the  so-called  young 
men  are  nondescripts. 


175 

Almost  every  school  tests  a  boy's  moral 
courage;  for  it  is  almost  sure  to  contain  a 
certain  amount  of  taunting  precocity,  even  if 
it  does  not  contain  an  element  of  finished 
bloods.  A  boy  with  a  conscience  is  put  to 
the  torture  of  doing  wrong  to  escape  sneers. 
The  knowing  ones  enthrall  him,  while  the 
massive  dignity  of  his  preceptor  is  unfelt.  It 
is  thus  that  vice  and  disorder  propagate  them- 
selves. Precocity  in  schools  has  its  grada- 
tions, from  the  urchin  who  fastens  pins  in 
the  seat  to  the  college  blood  who  patronizes 
his  old  professors  and  languidly  pooh-poohs 
the  superstitious  ideas  of  mankind  in  regard 
to  goodness.  This  last-named  individual  is 
a  character.  In  his  "  diversions "  he  has 
run  the  whole  gamut  of  mischief  and  wicked- 
ness, causing  a  thousand  heartaches  to  parents, 
teachers,  and  friends.  He  reaches  a  point  at 
last  where  exhaustion  and  seniorial  traditions 
combine  to  secure  a  fair  exterior.  After 
having  jested  with  every  sacred  thing,  and 
after  having  given  unbridled  rein  to  all  his 


176  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE   FAMILY. 

passions  and  propensities,  he  relapses  into  a 
quiet  cynicism,  smiling  ironically  at  the 
youthfulness  of  the  world,  because  it  does 
not  grow  old  as  fast  as  he  did.  He  is  a 
sphinx-like  terror  to  the  unspoiled  freshman  ; 
his  smile  is  more  tantalizing  than  the  open 
sneers  of  younger  reprobates. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  evil  world  is 
very  attentive  to  the  boys,  driving  and  luring 
them  into  its  ranks.  If  the  good  world  com- 
peted for  the  boys  with  equal  diligence,  we 
should  have  fewer  failures.  But  the  good 
world  is  generally  so  absorbed  in  great  en- 
terprises as  to  be  oblivious  of  such  things  as 
boys  and  their  destinies.  Boys  are  brushed 
aside  with  such  lack  of  sympathy  that  it 
seems  as  if  the  good  world  forgets  that  it 
once  passed  through  the  stage  of  boyhood. 
Boys  must  have  wise  and  sympathetic  coun- 
sel, or  they  will  win  their  wisdom  at  the 
expense  of  lost  opportunities.  Hero-worship 
is  characteristic  of  youth.  Boys  become  bad 
because  they  are  permitted  to  seek  their  own 


YOUTH'S  PROBLEMS.  177 

models,  and  because  bad  models  are  obtru- 
sively thrust  upon  them.  Those  who  are  too 
weak  or  vile  to  command  the  homage  of  the 
world  revel  in  the  gushing  homage  of  the 
boys.  But  boys  are  as  willing  to  deify  good- 
ness if  it  does  them  a  kindness  and  reaches 
their  sympathies.  Boys  are  imaginative  and 
constructive.  They  must  admire.  If  not 
drawn  to  revere  strong  models,  they  will  dress 
up  a  fiend  with  virtues.  We  forget  that  boys 
are  to  be  courted  when  we  try  to  drive  them 
into  the  ways  of  rectitude.  It  is  strange  that 
boys  are  not  understood  by  those  who  have 
been  boys  :  the  most  sensitive  natures  are  left 
to  build  their  air-castles  alone,  and  have  their 
hopes  dashed  by  repeated  slights  and  rebuffs. 
The  problems  of  unaided  youth  are  certain- 
ly very  weighty  ones..  It  seems  as  though 
the  world  conspires  against  them :  those  who 
carry  through  to  manhood  a  consistent  am- 
bition have  to  lift  mountains.  This  is  all 
wrong ;  the  mature  generation  owes  the  boys 
a  helping  hand,  and  pilotage  instead  of  sup- 
M 


178  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

pression.  No  boy  is  fully  capable  of  under- 
standing his  destiny  and  shaping  correct  ends 
unaided.  The  "  excelsior "  impulse  is  im- 
planted within  him  ;  but  it  may  drive  him 
on  to  the  rotten  branch  that  overhangs  the 
yawning  abyss.  He  needs  the  warning  voices 
of  those  who  know  the  roa.d.  But  as  his  im- 
pulses originate  in  his  breast,  he  likewise 
hears  only  with  his  breast ;  he  comprehends 
only  the  logic  of  affection.  His  one  active 
sense  must  be  reached  in  order  to  control 
him.  A  Socrates  or  Confucius  will  draw 
the  boys,  while  they  give  the  scowling  Di- 
ogenes a  wide  berth. 

The  Quixotic  impulses  of  youth  do  not  re- 
quire suppression,  but  direction.  Show  them 
the  windmills,  but  do  not  depress  their 
chivalry.  As  experience  brings  its  light  they 
will  direct  their  onslaughts  upon  real  foes. 
Happy  the  boy  who  is  not  tamed  by  his  ex- 
perience and  who  gets  his  light  without  loss 
of  volition.  In  practice  wre  seek  simply  to 
conquer  the  irrepressible  boys,  and  we  sue- 


YOUTH'S  PROBLEMS.  179 

ceed.  The  world  has  strategy ;  the  boys  have 
none.  "We  thus  fill  the  world  with  quaking 
cowards,  where  there  ought  to  be  lion-hearted 
heroes.  The  boys  throw  down  the  gauntlet 
to  destiny ;  they  rush  upon  unseen  weapons ; 
they  are  punished,  overcome,  humiliated,  dis- 
couraged. Select  the  bitterest  misanthrope, 
and  you  will  find  an  individual  who  started 
into  life  a  veritable  Bayard.  When  we  speak 
of  the  "  cold  world,"  we  mean  the  conquered 
boys  whose  enthusiasm  vanished  with  their 
hopes,  and  who  have  been  driven  to  assume  a 
desperate  defensive.  But  the  young  genera- 
tion are  ever  warm  with  generous  sentiments 
and  noble,  unselfish  purposes.  The  hope  of 
society  is  not  in  the  blasted  trunk,  but  in  the 
thrifty,  pliable  sapling. 

What  a  beautiful  order  of  things  surrounds 
the  air-castles  of  youth !  Therein  are  ceru- 
lean skies,  embowering  landscapes ;  beauty 
everywhere  in  infinite  variety  of  forms  ;  man 
at  his  best  estate  vying  with  his  kind  in  vir- 
tue ;  all  prosperity,  happiness,  love ;  a  general 


180  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

movement  in  unison  with  the  soul  of  the  In- 
finite. This  is  holy  ground — the  vision  of 
earthly  destiny  brought  by  new  arrivals  that 
have  not  yet  learned  the  discords  in  real 
things.  The  awakening  from  this  ideal 
world  to  the  real  world  of  wrong,  of  suffer- 
ing and  despair,  is  a  harsh  and  terrible  crisis 
in  a  human  life.  But  though  the  dream  de- 
parts, its  standard  of  perfection  remains  to  in- 
spire efforts  of  reform.  The  attempt  to  cor- 
rect things,  though  bootless,  is  worthy  of  all 
praise  and  admiration.  Maturity  is  wise 
when  it  keeps  an  ear  close  to  the  suggestions 
of  dreaming  youth  and  tries  to  analyze  the 
earthly  heaven  of  a  boy's  brain.  Maturity  is 
true  when  it  keeps  watch  and  ward  over  the 
boy  and  protects  him  from  the  snares  which 
he  cannot  himself  see.  Maturity  is  unwise 
as  well  as  unkind  when  it  robs  a  boy  of  his 
visions  before  he  is  ready  to  face  a  disordered 
world. 

A  youth  should  not  trust  to  his  own  un- 
aided judgment  in  shaping  his  future.     No 


YOUTH'S  PEOBLEMS.  181 

single  step  should  be  resolved  upon  without 
counselling  with  maturity.  He  will  thus  be 
saved  the  punishment  attendant  upon  mis- 
takes. His  parent  is  his  proper  mentor.  But 
if  deprived  of  parental  guidance,  he  should 
seek  a  substitute  for  it  among  the  worthiest 
of  his  acquaintance.  That  substitute  should 
be  one  who  lives  well,  and  who  both  knows 
and  feels.  He  is  fortunate  if  he  can  find  his 
cabinet  in  his  teacher. 

The  enemies  of  youth  are  internal  as  well 
as  external ;  and  he  encounters  both  under 
the  same  disadvantage  of  inexperience.  He 
is  subjected  to  a  fiery  warfare  of  propensities 
and  passions  without  understanding  their  nat- 
ure or  the  law  of  self-control.  He  learns  law 
by  experience,  it  is  true ;  but  his  knowledge 
may  come  after  violation  of  law  has  worked 
his  ruin,  and  after  he  has  become  the  slave 
of  habit.  The  problems  of  youth  are  all 
involved  in  the  general  problem  of  getting 
development  and  a  rich  experience  without 
personal  loss. 


182  THE    SCHOOL   AND   THE   FAMILY. 


TEA  CHERS '  PR  OBLEM8. 

THE  teacher's  problems  are  great,  even 
when  he  approaches  them  with  due  prepara- 
tion and  in  the  proper  spirit.  His  problems 
are  the  improvement  of  society  through  the 
development  of  the  young  and  the  diffusion 
of  intelligence  and  morality.  As  free  gov- 
ernment extends  through  the  world  it  anch- 
ors its  hopes  in  the  schoolmaster.  The  teach- 
er is  the  connecting  link  between  the  great 
past  and  the  great  future.  He  is  the  conser- 
vator of  progress.  The  great  future  appeals 
to  him  through  the  eyes  of  the  little  ones, 
and  asks  him  for  the  report  of  time.  Time 
has  brought  knowledge  and  wisdom  to  light ; 
the  future  is  prepared  to  use  them,  and  trusts 
him  to  transmit  the  heritage.  Viewed  sim- 
ply in  his  relation  to  the  ages,  the  teacher's 
responsibilities  are  vast,  and  should  be  ap- 


TEACHERS'  PROBLEMS.  183 

preached  with  reverence.  But  in  regard  to 
his  immediate  surroundings,  he  stands  in  im- 
portant relation  to  the  welfare  of  society,  and 
to  the  highest  good  and  happiness  of  sensitive 
and  immortal  beings. 

That  deep  reflection  is  required  in  order  to 
meet  the  demands  of  these  responsibilities 
and  relations  will  scarcely  be  questioned. 
But  what  is  it  to  reflect  ?  It  is  to  think,  to 
reason,  to  find  out  law.  "What  is  law  ?  It  is 
the  normal  form  of  an  activity.  The  teacher 
is  the  exponent  of  discipline,  the  personifica- 
tion and  efficient  director  of  that  power  which 
is  to  control  the  school  to  the  best  interests  of 
all  concerned.  We  have  discussed  the  nature 
of  that  power  and  the  conditions  of  its  suc- 
cessful operation.  It  is  needless  to  urge  that 
a  knowledge  of  those  conditions  is  essential 
to  success.  But  when  philosophy  has  ex- 
hausted itself,  it  only  carries  the  teacher  to 
his  problems ;  his  success  then  depends  upon 
his  own  personal  power.  That  power  con- 
sists— 1st,  in  making  up  his  case  and  stating 


THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

it  truthfully  ;  2d,  in  carrying  out  faithfully 
the  suggestions  of  philosophy. 

In  making  up  his  case  he  distinguishes  and 
defines  with  accuracy  the  salient  peculiarities 
of  his  field — including,  among  other  things, 
his  general  physical  surroundings,  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  people,  and  the  history  of  past 
government  in  the  school.  Most  of  the  data 
for  the  case  may  be  obtained  in  advance  of 
the  opening  of  school.  The  teacher  who  thus 
collects  it  will  be  prepared  to  anticipate,  or 
at  least  understand,  the  manifestations  of  the 
children  when  they  assemble.  His  minute 
inquiries  will  make  a  favorable  impression 
upon  the  people  by  indicating  something  of 
his  capacity  and  earnestness.  The  people  are 
seldom  lukewarm  towards  a  teacher;  they 
either  like  or  dislike  him  intensely.  The 
children  know  this  verdict,  and  are  influ- 
enced by  it  in  their  own  conduct.  First  im- 
pressions take  deep  root;  and  the  teacher 
makes  a  mistake  in  leaving  those  impressions 
at  the  mercy  of  disorderly  children. 


185 

But  in  the  case  of  collecting  data  the  im- 
pressions were  only  a  secondary  motive.  In 
like  manner,  every  really  wise  and  well-con- 
sidered act  starts  a  widening  circle  of  good 
influences.  But  the  opposite  is  also  true,  that 
an  unwise  act  has  its  series  of  evil  concomi- 
tants. It  is  difficult  to  entirely  repair  a  blun- 
der, for  one  can  seldom  tell  how  far  the 
poison  has  spread.  These  facts  should  not 
make  teachers  cowardly,  but  only  cause  them 
to  defer  decisive  action  till  after  mature  re- 
flection. There  is  a  difference  between  gov- 
ernments that  are  elastic  and  those  that  are 
inconsistent ;  better  defer  a  decision  than  re- 
call an  impolitic  edict.  The  latter  is  defeat, 
and  paralyzes  discipline.  The  delay  of  rigid 
authority  is  not  weak  temporizing ;  it  is  only 
giving  principles  time  to  bear  their  fruits ;  it 
is  a  recognition  of  the  important  fact  that  au- 
thority must  be  established  before  it  can  be 
exercised. 

It  will  aid  the  teacher  in  the  analysis  and 
management  of  his  case  to  commit  his  data 


186  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

to  writing ;  for  it  may  become  quite  volumi- 
nous after  the  preliminary  information  has 
been  supplemented  by  the  revelations  of  the 
school-room.  He  relieves  his  memory  there- 
by, and  is  also  better  enabled  to  study  his 
case.  The  rule  should  be  to  make  every  in- 
cident affecting  discipline  a  matter  of  record 
and  reflection  before  decisive  action.  Disci- 
pline is  a  growth  in  each  particular  school ;  it 
is  not  the  application  of  rigid  universal  rules. 
The  teacher  who  brings  a  list  of  rules  to  be 
enforced  and  defended  invites  and  secures  de- 
feat. The  rules  which  are  admirably  adapted 
to  one  school  may  be  very  inapplicable  to 
another.  The  issues  which  call  for  decisive 
action  will  arise  fast  enough  without  precipi- 
tating a  fight  along  the  whole  line  by  the  in- 
troduction of  artificial  rules.  It  is  easier  to 
conquer  an  enemy  by  cutting  off  his  detach- 
ments in  detail  than  by  inviting  a  general 
concentration  of  forces. 

Decisive  action  upon  an  issue  does  estab- 
lish a  rule,  for  it  carries  the  implication  that 


187 

all  similar  cases  will  be  disposed  of  in  a  simi- 
lar manner.  In  this  way  there  will  grow  up 
a  list  of  rules  for  that  particular  school.  The 
establishment  of  rules  marks  the  progress  of 
discipline,  and  with  it  the  progress  of  the 
children  and  the  people.  A  rule  properly 
established  is  an  event  of  great  importance 
in  the  history  of  a  school;  it  records  the 
growth  of  just  authority,  and  its  correlate 
submission.  A  rule  established  is  a  fortress 
won,  in  which  are  implied  all  the  skirmish- 
ings with  the  outposts,  the  gradual  invest- 
ment, the  sapping  and  mining,  the  forward 
movement  to  the  ultimate  reduction  and  final 
surrender.  A  rule  established  is  a  record  of 
work. 

The  teacher's  data  may  exhibit  a  long  cat- 
alogue of  disorders.  It  would  be  very  con- 
venient if  these  could  be  at  once  obliterated 
by  the  promulgation  of  rules  and  penalties. 
Canute  would  give  rules  to  the  sea,  and  the 
sea  dashed  over  him  and  his  rules.  So,  like- 
wise, the  great  sea  of  human  feeling,  emotion, 


188  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

passion,  defies  the  edict  of  a  little  despot.  If 
the  teacher  assumes  that  the  children  are  a 
mob,  they  will  ultimately  justify  his  assump- 
tion by  becoming  a  veritable  mob.  He  may 
possess  brute  force  enough  to  suppress  the 
mob  for  the  time  being ;  but  the  mob  spirit 
is  there  awaiting  its  opportunity  for  license. 
Must  we  look  for  the  qualities  of  the  prize- 
fighter in  the  person  wre  would  pronounce  fit 
to  control  a  school  ?  This  requirement  would 
rule  out  many  estimable  and  powerful  teach- 
ers. The  solution  must  be  sought  in  other 
qualities.  In  fact,  anything  particularly  san- 
guinary ought  to  tell  against  the  candidate. 
But  a  steady  eye  and  force  of  character  are 
not  brutish;  they  indicate  power  of  soul. 
Moral  resolution  (the  power  needed)  may  be 
found  in  a  frame  that  would  abhor  physical 
struggles. 

What  will  the  teacher  do  who  has  collected 
his  data,  and  discovers  that  past  mismanage- 
ment has  organized  a  mob  for  him  ?  He  will 
utterly  ignore  the  office  of  policeman,  and 


189 

assume  his  proper  character  of  parent  and 
friend.  He  will  dissolve  the  mob  by  con- 
vincing it  that  there  is  no  occasion  for  its 
existence;  he  will  guard  against  all  fretful- 
ness  and  preserve  a  cheerful,  benignant  de- 
meanor ;  he  will  reach  the  better  sentiments 
of  the  children,  and  organize  those  sentiments 
as  a  basis  of  discipline.  He  will  keep  in 
abeyance  his  policy  as  a  ruler  until  he  has 
established  his  character  as  a  friend.  Even 
then  he  will  not  reveal  his  policy  except  as 
circumstances  permit  it  to  become  law.  The 
teacher's  acts  are  proper  topics  of  comment ; 
his  intentions  are  his  own ;  besides,  it  strength- 
ens a  man  to  be  supposed  to  have  reserved 
power.  If  a  teacher  wishes  counsel  on  his 
policy,  he  should  obtain  it  by  a  discussion  of 
general  principles  or  of  supposititious  cases. 
An  important  reason  why  a  teacher  should 
not  reveal  his  intentions  is  that  he  is  not 
fully  committed  to  a  policy  until  he  has  crys- 
tallized it  into  decisive  action. 

But    the  policy   is    all  -  important.     What 


190  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

kind  of  government  shall  the  teacher  seek 
to  introduce  into  the  school?  Doubtless  all 
will  answer  the  government  of  just  and  salu- 
tary principles.  But  what  is  the  form  of  this 
government  of  just  and  salutary  principles? 
The  despot  may  hold  that  he  embodies  it; 
the  autocrat  may  claim  that  he  represents  it ; 
the  drill-sergeant  may  insist  that  he  has  the 
true  conception  of  order  and  its  laws.  We 
believe  that  the  best  teachers  will  dissent 
from  all  these  forms  and  seek  to  create  a 
democracy.  The  discussion  of  government 
with  the  governed  tends  to  enlighten  them 
as  to  its  uses :  it  distributes  responsibility 
and  infuses  loyalty.  A  rule  established  by 
common  consent  raises  an  impregnable  bar- 
rier against  disorder.  Delinquents  feel  the 
government  of  the  school,  and  not  the  sever- 
ity of  the  teacher.  The  teacher  becomes  the 
executive  officer  of  a  system,  the  represent- 
ative of  a  constituency.  The  teacher  origi- 
nates and  matures  measures  under  the  dem- 
ocratic system;  but  he  only  enforces  what 


191 

has  met  with  general  acceptance.  By  this 
system  his  government  escapes  the  reactions 
of  untimely  innovations,  and  he  escapes  the 
unpopularity  of  being  regarded  as  a  martinet 
and  theorist.  The  teacher  will  bide  his  time, 
working  meanwhile  upon  the  general  condi- 
tions ;  he  will  submit  his  points  as  he  feels 
the  sentiment  ripe  for  their  adoption ;  and 
he  will  thereafter  enforce  them  with  the 
most  unflinching  firmness.  The  non-enforce- 
ment of  a  rule  is  as  detrimental  to  discipline 
as  the  creation  of  an  untimely  rule.  The 
work  of  discipline  is  to  bring  volition  under 
law.  The  experience  of  law  should  be  that 
of  wholesome  firmness. 

In  the  matter  of  actual  government  we 
observe  that  the  teacher  should  proceed  with 
the  utmost  deliberation ;  but  in  the  matter  of 
making  the  people  governable  he  may  pro- 
ceed with  the  utmost  activity  and  persistence. 
What  acts  tend  to  make  the  people  govern- 
able? Any  act  that  tends  to  uproot  a  preju- 
dice ;  any  act  that  tends  to  enlarge  their  con- 


192  THE    SCHOOL    AND   THE    FAMILY. 

ceptions  of  things ;  any  act  that  increases  their 
confidence  in  the  goodness  and  capacity  of 
the  teacher ;  any  act  that  awakens  their  grat- 
itude ;  any  act  that  arouses  their  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility; any  act  that  enlightens  them  as 
to  the  nature  of  duty  and  the  proper  sphere 
of  government.  There  are  a  thousand  acts 
both  small  and  great  which  are  attended  with 
these  fruitful  results,  and  which  are  compre- 
hended under  the  teacher's  proper  problems. 
The  proper  method  of  managing  a  school 
is  the  most  comfortable ;  there  is  a  joy  in 
doing  good ;  and  there  is  an  ecstasy  in  each 
victory  over  disorder.  The  autocrat  is  sel- 
dom happy;  his  blunders  heap  coals  of  fire 
upon  his  own  head.  He  drifts  into  an  un- 
known school  and  finds  himself  face  to  face 
with  serious  disorder.  He  attempts  to  har- 
ness the  disorder  with  his  rules,  and  finds  it 
fractious.  He  becomes  worried,  petulant,  an- 
gry ;  he  precipitates  collisions,  employs  vio- 
lence, brings  about  a  state  of  war,  and  stirs  up 
much  bad  blood  in  the  neighborhood.  If  he 


TEACHERS'  PROBLEMS.  193 

holds  liis  post,  he  holds  rankling  hate  that 
requires  to  be  watched  with  argus  eyes,  giv- 
ing not  a  moment's  sense  of  security.  His 
nerves  are  under  continual  excitement ;  he 
feels  condemned  to  the  most  excruciating  tort- 
ure ;  he  considers  that  he  has  the  most  "  aw- 
ful" neighborhood  and  the  most  "awful" 
scholars  that  ever  persecuted  an  unhappy 
teacher.  He  longs  for  his  release,  and  on 
that  point  at  least  his  pupils  are  with  him ; 
they  are  as  unhappy  and  miserable  as  he. 
But  this  is  all  retribution  for  beginning 
wrong;  it  is  the  terrible  reaction  of  injus- 
tice; it  is  disastrous  failure. 

The  above  is  a  very  common  experience 
in  school  management.  It  is  noticeable  that 
while  those  teachers  report  their  own  pangs, 
they  seem  utterly  unconscious  of  having  in- 
flicted any.  They  have  inflicted  pangs,  and 
they  have  clouded  young  lives.  They  suffer- 
ed and  failed  because  they  did  not  come  to 
their  work  with  generous  intentions;  they 
came  with  the  selfish  motive  of  earning  a 
N 


THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

little  money  comfortably;  and  inasmuch  as 
the  unhappy  children  robbed  them  of  their 
comfort,  they  feel  that  they  are  martyrs. 
There  is  no  comfort  except  in  the  observ- 
ance of  law.  The  teacher  who  studies  his 
problems  in  order  to  conform  to  law  in  his 
movements  will  find  the  thorns  disappearing 
from  his  pathway  and  beds  of  roses  taking 
their  places. 

But  it  may  appear  laborious  to  discover  the 
individuality  of  the  district,  the  parents,  and 
the  children,  and  to  operate  from  the  stand- 
point of  this  individuality  according  to  the 
laws  of  development.  True,  it  requires  exer- 
tion ;  but  there  is  not  the  wear  and  tear  in 
it  that  occurs  in  a  blind  battle  with  forces. 
The  exertion  involved  in  rational  govern- 
ment is  the  exercise  of  one's  superior  powers 
— exercise  that  gives  the  teacher  development 
for  his  reward,  exercise  that  makes  him  great 
and  strong  for  occasions,  instead  of  wear- 
ing him  out.  Then  he  has,  furthermore,  the 
teacher's  highest  reward — the  intense  satisfac- 


TEACHERS'  PROBLEMS.  195 

tion  of  seeing  liis  little  well-disciplined  army 
moving  steadily  onward  to  success,  after  they 
leave  his  jurisdiction,  with  colors  flying  and 
hearts  freighted  with  hope  and  confidence. 
He  knows  that  each  will  do  a  soldier's  duty 
wherever  the  fortunes  of  war  may  place  him, 
and  at  the  end  of  the  campaign  send  in  a 
glorious  report  to  headquarters.  Surely  the 
possibility  of  such  rewards  ought  to  nerve 
the  teacher  to  any  amount  of  exertion  needed 
to  subdue  and  master  his  situation.  These 
possibilities  are  not  confined  to  any  one  dis- 
trict ;  they  exist  in  all. 

It  is,  then,  a  high  privilege  to  have  the 
moulding  of  youthful  emotions,  the  shaping 
of  youthful  conceptions.  The  teacher  is  that 
maturity  that  stoops  to  youth,  that  it  may  con- 
quer; 'he  is  that  maturity  that  adjusts  the 
real  to  the  ideal  without  doing  violence  to 
the  suggestions  of  nature;  he  is  that  older 
friend  who  protects  the  untrained  footsteps 
of  youth  from  error ;  he  is  that  maturity  that 
saves  the  faith  of  man  in  the  sympathy  and 


196     THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

generosity  of  his  kind.  Let  us  have  in  our 
schools  that  kind  of  government  which  con- 
duces to  the  good  of  all,  and  not  that  kind  of 
government  which  scatters  discord,  unhappi- 
ness,  and  failure.  Our  matter-of-fact  age,  in 
its  intellectual  tendencies,  would  underesti- 
mate the  value  of  the  affections ;  it  proscribes 
"gush."  But  there  will  come  a  reaction.  It 
seems  scarcely  possible  that  the  cynic  shall 
dictate  the  universal  form  of  human  exist- 
ence. The  highest  type  of  man  is  he  who 
can  feel  as  well  as  know.  It  has  taken  ages 
of  injustice  to  make  us  a  race  of  cynics;  it 
may  take  other  ages  of  kindness  to  restore  us 
to  our  normal  condition  of  "good  will  towards 
men."  The  cynic  himself  concedes  that  man 
has  a  spiritual  nature,  the  seat  of  the  affec- 
tions, but  holds  that  he  should  'grow  away 
from  it,  instead  of  letting  it  unfold  and  grow 
with  him. 

We  know  in  order  that  we  may  feel,  not 
that  we  may  dispense  with  feeling:  our  high- 
est sensibilities  are  fed  by  knowledge.  We 


TEACHERS'  PROBLEMS.  197 

would  be  delivered  from  that  professed  ma- 
turity which  offers  as  its  credentials  a  with- 
ered heart.  True  generosity  will  not  halt 
in  its  noble  undertakings  because  icy  selfish- 
ness chooses  to  stigmatize  its  expressions  as 
"gush"  and  "sentiment."  The  teacher  needs 
the  courage  to  be  good,  and  to  profess  good- 
ness. 

The  teacher  finds  his  problems  all  around 
him  in  the  imperfections  to  be  removed,  and 
in  the  qualities  and  aptitudes  to  be  nourished 
and  developed.  He  is  the  physician  of  the 
modern  school  who  repudiates  plasters  and 
nostrums,  and  who  assists  nature  to  arrest 
disease  and  shake  it  off.  Those  problems  are 
numerous ;  to  discuss  them  all  would  take 
much  space.  But  they  are  not  all  revealed ; 
widening  experience  will  bring  more  and 
more  to  light.  Those  desirous  of  seeing 
them  will  find  them  in  the  data  of  the  good 
governor.  Each  problem  is  a  case  represent- 
ing a  large  class  of  similar  experiences.  We 
need  an  educational  literature  giving  in  full 


198  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE    FAMILY. 

the  history  of  the  solution  of  each  problem. 
Science  and  literature  will  be  indebted  to  the 
recorded  observations  and  operations  of  the 
capable  teacher. 

But  can  \ve  afford  good  government  ? — that 
is,  can  we  afford  to  employ  wisdom  and  skill 
to  preside  over  our  schools?  The  answer  will 
be  found  in  other  queries.  Can  we  afford  to 
be  happy?  Can  we  afford  to  dispense  with 
the  dead  weights  which  intellectual  and  mor- 
al ignorance  are  ever  imposing  upon  society  ? 
Can  we  afford  a  population  of  producers,  in- 
stead of  drones  and  wrecks  to  be  carried  ? 
The  answer  comes  from  the  districts  them- 
selves. The  small  salary  of  an  autocrat  is 
felt  to  be  a  burden;  and  it  is  a  real  burden, 
for  it  is  so  much  dead  loss  and  waste.  Com- 
plaints about  expenses  prevail  mostly  in  dis- 
tricts that  pay  small  salaries,  because  those 
districts  have  not  received  benefits  from  their 
expenditures.  Districts  which  have  passed 
through  the  same  stages  of  complaint  have 
been  known  to  pay  cheerfully  much  larger 


199 

salaries  in  order  to  retain  the  services  of  a 
capable  teacher.  It  will  not  pay  to  use  in- 
competency  gratis ;  but  there  will  result  the 
best  returns  from  giving  a  living  compensa- 
tion to  merit. 

We  reiterate,  in  closing,  the  necessity  for 
educational  doctrines  and  formulas  to  unify 
the  educational  power  of  the  nation,  to  con- 
serve experience,  to  facilitate  progress,  and  to 
protect  the  profession  and  the  cause  from 
abuses.  We  have  hinted  at  a  grand  correla- 
tion of  principles  in  education,  that  would  en- 
dow the  young  with  the  experience  of  the 
old,  and  make  the  experience  of  one  the  expe- 
rience of  all.  For  the  teachers  and  the  pub- 
lic we  need  distinct  and  uniform  educational 
doctrines ;  for  the  profession  we  need  to  have 
those  doctrines  formulated  under  an  exhaust- 
ive classification  and  fixed  technology.  We 
believe  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when  a  teach- 
er's orthodoxy  may  be  tested  by  terms,  when 
he  will  be  required  to  discuss  the  things  and 
relations  of  educational  science  as  he  now 


200  THE    SCHOOL    AND    THE   FAMILY. 

discusses  the  things  and  relations  of  English 
grammar. 

The  science  of  education  is  quite  as  easy 
to  comprehend  as  the  science  of  sentences. 
They  are  both  logical  sciences  ;  the  distinc- 
tions in  the  one  are  neither  more  refined  nor 
abstruse  than  in  the  other.  Our  art  of  talk- 
ing has  led  us  to  perceive  the  laws  of  speech 
or  the  science  of  grammar.  Our  art  of  teach- 
ing should  lead  us  to  the  laws  of  develop- 
ment or  the  science  of  education. 

It  should  be  easy  to  decide  which  of  these 
sciences  ought  to  have  the  preference.  Bad 
grammar  makes  us  offend  against  taste ;  bad 
education  makes  us  offend  against  the  fun- 
damental laws  of  being. 


INDEX. 


Absence,  causes  of Page  28 

Activity  of  childhood 31, 170 

universal  law  of 14 

Affections,  ground  of  custody 36 

spiritual,  the  culmination  of  our  moral  nature ....  56 

Allegiance  due  from  the  child 4C 

American  educational  problem,  the. . .  fZTT,  r.7\. 132 

Analysis,  tabular ./. 127 

Assimilation  of  citizens  the  work  of  education .'. 132 

Association  of  ideas  illustrated,  the 57,  61 

Attention  essential  to  order ^.  f J 56 

how  produced . »  57 

Authority,  abdication  of ,  42 

abuse  of 41 

conflict  of 41 

Character  a  power  in  discipline 53 

defined 49 

how  formed 54 

Cheerfulness  necessary  in  the  teacher 93 

Compensation  due  to  service  of  value. , 87 

Complaisance  deceptive 50 

Confidence  secured  by  sympathy '171 

Conscience  defined 100 « 

the  immediate  cause  of  order 73 

Conserving  forces  in  society 117 

Corporal  punishment,  proper  use  of 101 

Counsel  an  absolute  need  of  youth 171 

Covetousness  a  cause  of  absence 34 

Crime  a  violation  of  law 40 

Criminal  punishments  are  losses  of  rights 78 

Custody  granted  to  the  affections 36 


INDEX. 


Desires  produce  volition Page  44 

Dilapidation  of  school  property,  causes  of 89 

Discipline  defined 14 

Disobedience,  causes  of 41 

Dissipation  produced  by  custom 28 

Domestic  culture  the  work  of  the  mother 1GI 

Duties  of  parents 83 

Duty  a  branch  of  knowledge 103 

Edification  defined 12 

Education  an  art 12G,  153 

Educational  science 136 

Eligibility  to  educational  offices 113 

Enforced  stillness,  evils  of 57,  70,  88 

Examination  of  teachers   should  include   educational  sci- 
ence     105, 135 

Excitement,  effects  of 29 

Executive  ability  delusive 104 

External  training 22, 173 

False  maturity 178 

Family  government 28 

Female  education 141 

teachers 140 

Fossil  teachers GO 

Happiness  a  condition  of  order 44 

Heroism,  uses  of 77 

Hero-worship  a  necessity  of  childhood 17G 

Hours  of  rest 33 

Human  nature,  elements  of 55 

Ideality  characteristic  of  youth 179 

Illogical  notions G8 

Imitation,  powerlessness  of 9G 

Induction  defined 11 

Indulgence,  effects  of , 34,  42 

Injudicious  criticism 39 

Injustice  defined 74 

reaction  of 89 

Insecurity  expensive 80 


INDEX.  203 


Instinct  the  child's  law Page  1(12 

Insubordination,  causes  of 41 

Intellectual  idleness 95 

Judicial  decision 37 

Legal  protection  needed GO 

License  caused  by  undue  restraint.. 70 

consists  of 91 

Love,  solicitude  of 36 

test  of  character 56 

the  basis  of  instruction 84 

Mai-education 27 

Manners,  how  formed 92 

Maturity  a  right  of  childhood 84 

defined 86 

tested'. 49 

Migration  caused  by  educational  wants 148 

Misanthropy,  how  caused 179 

Missionary  work  of  teachers 68 

Moral  courage  an  clement  of  character 52,  78 

law  defined 75 

power  necessary  to  the  teacher 48.  188 

remedies  in  discipline 65 

Motherhood,  importance  of 167 

Music  a  power  over  conduct 46 

Natural  imbecility 72 

signals 97 

Normal  schools 136 

Obedience  depends  on  faith 103 

produced  by  conscience 73 

the  duty  of  the  child 43 

Objective  instruction  defined , 12 

Order  defined 14 

Over-education  a  fallacy 26 

Parental  exclusiveness 1 64 

opinions  fallacious 25 


204:  INDEX. 


Parental  visitation  of  schools Page  39 

Parties  in  a  school 15 

Patriotism  a  cause  of  self-sacrifice 76 

Perjury,  incentives  to 115 

Poetic  genius  a  perception  of  law  and  order 15 

Practical  reforms  related  to  youth's  ideals 180 

Precocity,  phases  of 175 

Preoccupation  a  parental  fault 165 

Prerogatives  of  citizenship 131 

Presumptive  perfection  of  the  teacher 40 

Procrastination,  effects  of 28 

Professional  education,  need  of 134 

Progress  a  factor  in  discipline 60 

indications  of 64 

Propensities,  contest  with 53, 181 

Prudence  wanting  in  children 29 

Public  opinion,  power  of 132 

Public  order  related  to  happiness 46 

related  to  order  in  schools 41 

Punctuality,  importance  of 27 

Rebellion  encouraged 23 

Reciprocity  the  law  of  acquisition 100 

Reflection  defined 183 

Relaxation  a  need 93 

Respect  a  condition  of  obedience 47 

Retribution  inseparable  from  Avrong  action 100,  192 

Rights,  how  alienated 76 

inalienable 76 

of  children 84 

of  district 80 

of  parents 82,  106 

of  property , 37 

of  society 79 

of  teachers 87.  107 

origin  of 75 

Rote-teaching  injurious 58 

Rules,  use  and  abuse  of .. .   186 

Rural  education,  importance  of 144 

opportunities 145 


INDEX,  205 


School  patriotism Page  47 

polity 189 

Schools,  purpose  of. 82 

Selfishness  abuses  government , G9 

destroys  schools 133 

in  the  family 101 

Self-mastery  in  the  teacher  a  power  in  discipline 49 

Sentiments  cultivated 153 

Services  due  from  children 3G 

Slavery  of  children 35 

Society  the  condition  of  human  development „ 79 

Subdivision  of  territory  affects  discipline 19 

Subject  defined 11 

Subjective  instruction  defined 12 

Superintendent  a  teacher,  the /.  110 

Supervision  a  phase  of  discipline 109 

appointive. , , . . .  118 

nominal 121 

political 112 

Support  the  prime  family  problem 157 

Susceptibilities  defined , 45 

Tardiness,  causes  of 28 

Taxation,  grounds  of 81 

Teachers'  facilities  for  preparation 136 

Township  system 18 

Training,  industrial,  a  parental  duty 36 

Tyranny  of  custom 29 

Unprofitable  discussions 39 

Violence  a  violation  of  rights 90 

springs  from  selfishness 69 

Volition,  origin  of 44 

Weakness  of  youth 54 

Wealth,  what  constitutes 152 

Will  power  an  evil  and  a  good , 69 

Wrong  defined 74 


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